Trainers acquired new knowledge and skills for creating life champions
A special component of the 4-day regional camp held on June 24-27 on mountain Zlatibor, Serbia was the training of trainers of younger categories from 6 football clubs involved. It aimed to improve the knowledge and skills of trainers for introduction of new topics and methodological approaches in work with children and youth, in order to shift the focus from creating the sports to creating the life champions.
Welcoming the attendees, project coordinator Aleksandra Knežević proudly pointed out that along with the training for trainers, additional funds were provided for the organization of a regional camp for 150 children, which gave the project an added value, at the same time giving the opportunity to the trainers to apply acquired knowledge and skills in practice, in direct field work with the present children and youth.
Interactive and dynamic training focused on introducing the trainers to the process of development, but also further application of the educational module, encouraging constant discussion about the advantages of its usage in sports work with children and youth.
Trainers were introduced to the steps in development of the new educational module – analysis of previous researches; basic data collection (survey and testing); training for trainers; monitoring the implementation of the program in practice (both during the camp and in the local environment, i.e. in the clubs trainers were coming from; collecting and analyzing data after the implementation of the program, and evaluating collected data.
Experts working on development of the module pointed out that it was focusing on methodological and motivational strategies, which was why the participants were offered two expert interventions by the present university professors from Ankara and Skopje, experts in the field of sports psychology and pedagogy.
In order to adequately start to apply newly acquired knowledge related to the educational module, during the training the lecturers also dealt with the communication, presentation and organizational skills of the present trainers. It was pointed out that the same would be used at the camp, but also during 3 months of activities in the clubs they came from, as wella as that the first cross section and analysis would be done at the new regional camp planned for September in Palić, Serbia. Upon completion of the evaluation, a manual will be developed and a new educational module will be presented to the general audience.
Conducting the final evaluation of the training, trainers expressed satisfaction with the information shared and approach used in the work, hoping that this would be just one in a series of educational activities aimed at raising their capacities to work with children and youth.
Training for trainers is part of the project “Standing Together for a Healthy and Safe Community” implemented through the ERASMUS+ program of the European Union in the field of sports. The coordinator is Development Center for Youth from Belgrade, and the consortium brings together partners from the youth, education and sports sectors from Serbia, North Macedonia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Turkey.