One Step Ahead is a training course for youth workers (group leaders and project managers) from partner organisations around Europe. The theme is professionalism in international youth work; the objective is to share our experience and develop best practice and high professional standards for leading groups of young people on international exchanges, by training the "next generation" of youth project leaders. The course will take place in Buckinghamshire, UK, with a duration of 8 days. There will be 29 participants (age 21+) from 10 countries (Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, and UK). Activities will include presentations by participants, group discussions and practical hands-on simulation exercises designed to test knowledge and put learning into practice in a controlled but lifelike situation. The course will be based around outdoor (city) and intercultural learning so the planned simulations will enable participants to experience the kind of programme often applied to young people on exchanges, where issues of risk and welfare are most visible. The training on a course of this kind is not covered by standard youth work courses, so most people learn about international work piecemeal from experience. We want to put in place something more systematic but also to share our own approaches which may differ from others active in this field elsewhere in Europe. The course will focus specifically on the skills, knowledge and professionalism of project managers and group leaders, and will set out the minimum standards for someone in this role. The objective of the One Step Ahead course is to share experience and adopt a common set of standards which all participants will take back into their organisations and adopt as an agreed code of practice. For this reason, there will be a follow-up requirement for multiplier training by all partners. The methodology will be participatory and non-didactic, so everyone, including the organisers, can expect to learn and develop. It will result in participants understanding the regulatory and risk management framework needed in a well-managed exchange and adopting an agreed set of professional standards which participants and their organisations will adhere to in future. We believe this course will contribute to the overall effectiveness and high standards of projects within Erasmus+. We intend this to be the first in a series of similar courses run in different parts of Europe in the next 18-24 months. In the longer term we hope this will lead to a recognised training and quality assessment at the European level.