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Leadership=Employability
Leadership=Employability
Start date: Jun 1, 2015,
End date: Dec 31, 2015
PROJECT
FINISHED
Over the last 5 years, with support from EU funding programmes, our international leadership courses have become an example of good practice in non-formal education, with a measurable impact on many young people's lives. Leadership=Employability was the latest version of this flagship programme.
This leadership training course involved 23 young people, from 10 countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Estonia, Georgia, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, and the UK). The course was based at Newland Park, Buckinghamshire, with additional activities in London, with a total duration of 9 days in July 2015.
An intensive, innovative and challenging training programme was combined with exceptional social activities and visits, including a visit to the Houses of Parliament, visits to businesses and organisations in the City of London, and a welcome party on a Thames river cruise.
The course provided a unique opportunity for bright and motivated young people from a range of backgrounds, including those with fewer opportunities, to explore leadership and develop their employability skills, led by internationally respected trainers. The strong pedagogical approach used combined non formal learning and practical challenges with in depth personal and group reflection and review, leading to real change in young people’s perspectives on their education and career prospects. A major focus of the course for the participants themselves was the concept of "personal branding" and values-based leadership. There was also a strong intercultural learning dimension. The course included a whole day media challenge for the entire group. This challenge was to design and present a live TV broadcast promoting leadership principles and skills to other young people. The challenge both presented all the learning from the week, and put skills into action in a real time team situation.
There was also an emphasis on follow-up activity, with participants taking responsibility for delivering a simple global learning activity to youth groups in their home countries, thereby both putting leadership skills into practice and delivering benefits of international awareness to a wider audience. The roll-out of this activity is ongoing, with a further Erasmus+ application currently in preparation.
Apart from the Momentum team, trainers included Paul van Casteren, an internationally respected management coach who works with senior executives of multinational companies, and Hayley Downing, the head of human resources from one of the UK's leading recruitment companies.
Participants got a deep understanding of their own leadership style, their career ambitions and motivations, and the next steps they need to take in their career development. Feedback from the course was excellent, with participants reporting immediate impact on their career prospects (in at least one case, rapid success in finding a job).