How to ensure good quality preparation, implementation and follow-up and evaluation of international mobility projects?
Group work, preparation meeting, December 2016, Tartu
Preparation
Implementation
Follow-up and evaluation
- Make agreements with partners before applying the project for funding
- Select carefully partners – choose partners through network / reliable partners or make selection based on past cooperation. Know your partners beforehand. If not possible, choose partners based on their reply (quality /speed) when choosing unfamiliar partners
- Agree beforehand, how is the selection of participants done (by whom, deadlines). Fix the participant profile already before.
- Agree on task division. Each partner should have their own responsibility. In youth exchanges, activities should be divided equally between all partners.
- Have direct contact with participants. Create facebook group before project, to connect participants and partner organizations together and make information exchange easier.
- Prepare clear & complete infopack. If possible, make it interesting - prezzi for example
- Involve youngsters as soon as possible (youth exchanges) to have their contribution, ideas and needs.
- Planning visas and documents on the right time to avoid problems with funding in some countries (allow plenty of time). Plan visa costs in while applying the project - visa costs are covered 100 %.
- APV (advance planning visit) is highly recommended (youth exchanges, EVS) – creates opportunity to meet partners eye to eye, divide tasks and see project location/facilities beforehand. Motivates group leaders to be involved in youth exchange phase, too. Good place to share participants’ expectations and learning needs.
Implementation
- APV creates “ownership of project” for all partners and participants present. This means project will have more active and motivated participants.
- Learning reflection and feedback sessions should be separate. Learning reflection is for participants to reflect on their own learning, feedback sessions are to evaluate the organisational part.
- For safety and good working atmosphere it is good idea to set ground rules. Best effect is achieved in case participants make their own rules and these are not given by organizers. It is better to call rules not rules, but “agreement” etc.
- Profile of participants is very important. Mobility of youth workers is for youth workers, not young people.
- Share expectations and learning needs in the beginning of the project. Some examples: ask participants to choose three professional and three personal learning goals they want to achieve during the project; ask participants to write down what they want to learn or improve in framework of eight key competences.
- Make sure you follow the group development stages – forming, storming, norming, performing, mourning – and choose methods/activities according to different stages.
Follow-up and evaluation
- Make sure you have effective communication with partners – selection of reliable partners helps a lot.
- In youth exchanges discuss during APV also the follow-up and dissemination activities
- Quality of youth exchanges is achieved through good preparation of participants and selection of good group leaders.
- Donor/funder should be always visible. During the activities there should be Erasmus + introduction (separate session). Make sure you use programme logos everywhere. Ensure visibility on each tool, paper, document and infopack. Use project planning as a tool for visibility. In follow-up planning think how to introduce Erasmus + and how to make future cooperation with same partners.
- To ensure visibility use good practises and partners’ experience. Often youngsters use different and variable platforms, you can use, too.
- Clear and complete infopack helps to achieve good follow-up - write down what is planned for follow up phase and what is expected from participants after the project.
- Support partners with implementation of follow up, this is not only the task of coordinator, but all partners equally.