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You are here: Home / AER Eurodyssey / Eurodyssey Forum 2020

Eurodyssey Forum 2020

23 November, 2020 By Editor

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The first-ever virtual Eurodyssey Forum took place on 19 & 20 of November 2020. These online sessions brought together the correspondents from Eurodyssey regions, hosting companies and youth alumni. In these sessions, participants discussed the functioning of the programme, and shared experiences and best practices to adapt learning mobility to the “new normal” of COVID-19.

An online Eurodyssey Assembly

In the afternoon of 19 November, following the AER General Assembly and Bureau meeting, the Eurodyssey Assembly gathered representatives from 20 member regions. The Assembly provided members with an opportunity to assess the state-of-play of the programme and exchange views on the regions’ prospects of hosting Eurodyssey participants in 2021, given the COVID-19 pandemic.

And we're back! 👐

The first ever virtual @eurodyssey forum kicks-off with welcoming remarks from AER President @MagnusBerntsson and Eurodyssey President, @estany_esther ! 💫 pic.twitter.com/oiaDDfFWWU

— AER (@europeanregions) November 19, 2020

In their opening remarks, AER President, Magnus Berntsson, and Eurodyssey President, Esther Estany, raised a toast to mark thirty-five years since the creation of the Eurodyssey programme. This was followed with the premiere of the anniversary video:

Eurodyssey facts & figures

The day continued with an assessment of the Eurodyssey programme by AER programmes coordinator, Andrés Muñoz, who delivered a presentation on the 2019 statistics, which underlined the significant, positive impact the programme continues to have on young trainees’ employment prospects.

The programme allowed a total of 303 young Europeans (+16% compared to 2018) to benefit from genuine professional experience and linguistic training in another European region. Other remarkable outcomes include the rise in the number of both the internship offers published (+30%) and the candidates (+33%) compared to 2018.

Looking at the employment prospects for Eurodyssey participants in 2018, regions can be proud that 40% of interns find a job within 1 month of completing their traineeship. What is more, 64% of the survey respondents declared that Eurodyssey was decisive in finding a job and 20% of them attributed such a fact to the language training received.

You can read all the 2019 statistical findings and 2018 employment results from the summary report HERE.

The numbers don't lie! 🔢📈

The positive impact of taking part in a @eurodyssey traineeship is clear. Youth mobility increases employability, and we're looking forward to getting young Europeans moving again very soon! 🛫🚉 #eurodyssey pic.twitter.com/DZIwpd2uhO

— AER (@europeanregions) November 19, 2020

Sharing on social media is caring about Eurodyssey

The last presentation by the Secretariat was conducted by Justin Sammon, AER Communications Officer, who shared with member regions guidelines to harness the potential of social media for promoting the programme and to communicate Eurodyssey’s long-term positive impact on young people, regions and society.

View HERE the presentation Sharing is caring: making the most of social media.

Break-out sessions

On Day 2 of the Forum on 20 November, the Eurodyssey online break-out sessions provided members with further opportunities to exchange experiences and good practices to keep up learning mobility through the pandemic. For these events, we were also joined by hosting organisations and Eurodyssey alumni, who had the opportunity to share their testimonials.

The day kicked-off with an introductory talk by Safi Sabuni from Eurodesk and Manel Sánchez from the European Youth Card Association (EYCA), who provided a broader overview on how youth organisations are adjusting their work “to continue to be there for young people” who face unique challenges socially, economically and personally because of the pandemic. They also made a number of recommendations from their respective organisations on how to minimise the impact on learning mobility projects. Participants then broke-off into into multilingual ‘break-out’ sessions, where they had the opportunity to brainstorm ideas for keeping the Eurodyssey programme moving despite the pause on mobility caused by COVID-19.

Manel Sánchez underlines that contrary to negative perceptions about them, young people have shown real solidarity since the pandemic started; volunteering in their regions to help vulnerable people in their communities. 🤝 #eurodyssey pic.twitter.com/y6YkDwAuz1

— AER (@europeanregions) November 20, 2020

From education and employment, to mental health and personal relationships, the impact of the pandemic on young people has been vast. Safi Sabuni says that the youth sector has adapted to this new digital reality "to be there for young people." #eurodyssey pic.twitter.com/8mp4FwJSH7

— AER (@europeanregions) November 20, 2020

Ackowledgements

Closing the Eurodyssey Forum, AER Secretary General, Christian Spahr thanked all those who had made “this visionary programme of cross-border professional learning a reality for thirty-five years”. In her speech Eurodyssey President, Esther Estany – speaking in French, Spanish and English – pointed to the spirit of optimism that fills Eurodyssey family and the “very bright future” that lies ahead. She called on regions to keep up the hard work for the decades to come and to defend mobility as an essential source of regional development.

Visit the 2020 Eurodyssey Forum event page to download all the working documents, presentations and other key takeaways.

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Filed Under: AER Eurodyssey, AER events, News Tagged With: Cohesion, Education & Training, Employment, Eurodyssey, Event 2020 Eurodyssey Forum, Good practices, Inclusion, Regional development, Regionalisation, Regions, SMEs, Training, Youth, Youth Employment, youth fund, Youth participation

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