Between 6th and 14th of August 2021, in the location of Paley, France, participants from 6 countries (France, Greece, Latvia, Bulgaria, Germany and Romania) attended the "Work or Business" Youth Exchange Project, part of the Erasmus+ Program. Romania was represented by Nicole, Iulia, Antonia and Vera.
The participants developed both hard and soft skills during the workshops, such as time and stress management, working with Canvas Business Model, knowledge about how to properly write a Curriculum Vitae, a motivation letter and how to prepare for job interviews.
During the first day, we discussed the history and complexity of the Erasmus+ program, as well as the personal development that every participant has experienced after taking part in youth exchanges co-funded by Erasmus+. Afterwards, we have learned about what the Youthpass certificate entails, it's ever-growing importance and the multiple purposes that it can serve.
In one of our sessions we discussed this subject and we made team presentations that reflect the situation of every country participating and build an idea about the general situation about teen employment in Europe.
Another interesting session was the one dedicated to job interviews. In the session the participants had the chance not only to do proper research for a specific job/company, but also to develop their language skills, as well as their body language.
Nicole said “Personally, I really enjoyed working on the job interviews. I found it extremely interesting, as we had the chance of being both the interviewer and the one attending the interview, and I found it quite fun and motivating. Every participant was really involved in the role play, which could be seen in the quality of the interviews.”
Iulia added “During the project we learned about the Canvas model, it was the first time I heard about it and I found it really useful because I want to start a business in the near future and that's a tool that can help me to succeed.”
Diversity, respect and tolerance are important values of the European community. We are all different but we have common ground and we discovered this during our intercultural night. Every country, Romania, Bulgaria, Germany, France, Latvia and Greece represented their national spirit by presenting their culture, traditions, language and values. We experienced foreign music, dances, and food which made us learn about European unity.
In case you want to find out more about our experience you can consult here the brochure of the project.