On sunny warm days Brussels-Capital Region hosted for the very first time the 2018 Eurodyssey Forum organised by AER, in cooperation with Actiris (Brussels’ regional employment service) and Brussels International.
The Forum is a unique opportunity for Eurodyssey correspondents of the member regions to exchange good practices and lessons learnt relating to the operational management of the programme. Unlike past editions, prior to this year’s Forum a couple of public events targeting non-member regions and various stakeholders took place at the premises of Actiris for the purposes of promoting the added value of Eurodyssey and raising awareness about the importance of youth mobility for regional development.
A warm institutional welcome
Mathieu Mori, Secretary General of AER, together with the President of Eurodyssey, Esther Estany, welcomed all regional correspondents and opened the Assembly on 19 April in the afternoon. Mathieu Mori thanked the participants for their commitment and took the opportunity to underscore the importance of the Eurodyssey Statute and Procedures which are effectively contributing to the harmonization of the programme.
Update on the 2017 Eurodyssey Statistics!
Olga Conde, Eurodyssey trainee at the AER Secretariat, made a presentation on the Annual Statistics Report for 2017, including an evaluation of the reciprocity principle in terms of sending and hosting trainees. Additionally, Agneta Kardos, correspondent of the region of Timis (RO), delivered a presentation providing a comprehensive picture of Eurodyssey based on the disaggregated data –training sectors, sex and age of the trainees and other relevant criteria– that is automatically collected via the website.
The Eurodyssey family grows!
The Eurodyssey Assembly officially welcomed the region of Trentino (IT) to the network. Laura Pitteri, regional contact point for Eurodyssey, shared a promotional video with the members and made a presentation providing some key regional facts and figures as well as detailing the specificities for the implementation of Eurodyssey in Trentino.
Arising from the Eurodyssey Events & Forum, some other non-member regions expressed interest in knowing more about the programme in view to look into the possibility of joining the network.
Re-branding Eurodyssey
A big upcoming achievement is the launch of the very much-desired new Eurodyssey website!
Freddie Martyn, AER Communications & Events, reported the progress made on the developments of the new website, which is expected to become fully operative, most likely, by November 2018. This new online site, tailored-made to the needs of the correspondents, will contribute significantly to improve the programme management and facilitate the data collection in a more accurate way. Furthermore, Eurodyssey accounts on different social media channels –Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.– will be created and linked to the new website to boost the visibility of the programme.
In order to ensure a smooth launch of the website, the Eurodyssey Presidency proposed to organise a training session in Barcelona by October 2018 conducted by Freddie Martyn in order for Eurodyssey correspondents to get more acquainted with the use and functioning of the website and also to learn about other useful IT tools (e.g. Slack).
Check Freddie’s presentation on the new website here!
Assessing professional integration of Eurodyssey trainees
Andrés Muñoz, AER Programmes Manager, stressed all along the Forum the importance of establishing effective mechanisms to measure the degree of professional success of Eurodyssey trainees once they finish their traineeships and access the labour market. He stated that in the event Eurodyssey is yielding appreciable positive results on employability, this could become a key selling point not only to attract new regions but also to substantially improve the credentials of the programme before the EU institutions and other stakeholders from the field of youth mobility.
Brainstorming sessions
On 20 April, the participants took part very actively in a couple of workshops within the Forum aimed to put forward key aspects concerning the management and promotion of the programme. As a result, Eurodyssey correspondents were engaged in fruitful discussions sharing good practices, coming up with practical solutions to solve deficiencies and proposing initiatives to better promote Eurodyssey.
One of the main topics that arised from the discussions was how to make Eurodyssey trainees ambassadors of the programme both in the sending and hosting region. In addition to this, the correspondents also had the chance to exchange experiences about the management of the traineeship offers and the candidates’ applications.
Useful Links
Visit the event page to check all presentations and outputs of the Forum
You can download the pictures of the event by clicking here.
You can find out more about the discussions on the 2018 Eurodyssey Forum Report.
Related Article
Looking forward to meeting up again at the next Forum!
It’s all about YOUth!
Photo credits: @Brussels Regional Public Service
