On the 29th May, the University of Deusto team organised its second Youth Panel. The aim was to contrast ENLIVEN project with young people from civil society organisations from the Basque country such as Peñascal, Adsis, Kaledor Kayiko and the Compensatory Education Consortium of Biscay. On this occasion, after presenting the main results of the project, the debate was organised around three questions related to three major themes that have been worked on in the different work packages of ENLIVEN:
- Motivations and Enablers: what helps us to keep in the training programs? What motivates us and supports us?
- Barriers: what difficulties and barriers did you encounter to stay in the training programmes? And which ones to find work?
- The benefits: what benefits of learning? Did you get anything good?
Over the coffee, we split the participants into three groups mixing people from different organisations. After the presentations, we asked them to proposed questions, writing down the key messages in a post it. Then they compared and explained to each other in small groups, so that each group debated each of the topics. We tried to facilitate the participation of the youth, creating a dialogue between people from different organisations and with different life paths.
Thirdly, every small group posted the debated post-its on a panel and explained each of the words to the rest of the group. The process was repeated three times in order to comment on the three issues raised.
This process allowed a fascinating discussion with the young people who attended. Looking at the motivation, three topics were central: the future, the environment of the course and the personal feeling of self-confidence. The main difficulties pointed out to be involved in the different courses were the personal situation, due to a lack of maturity and knowledge of the possibilities offered by the environment. They commented that the peer group also exerts a negative influence, if it does not encourage them to stay in the educational programs. In other cases, nostalgia and distance from the family was associated with a sense of loss that made it more difficult for them to focus on their studies (some young people were unaccompanied migrants).
Finally, the debate around the benefits of learning focused on personal aspects (freedom, respect, independence) and the professional future. It is interesting that the group highlighted social as a motivation and, at the same time, as a barrier. In particular, those people from minority groups commented the difficulties arising from living together in spaces where, at times, they do not feel welcome or respected.
Horizon 2020 - ENLIVEN 