TRAINING NEW TRAINERS – SOFIA 2024

Between January 21 and 28, I had the opportunity to participate in Training new Trainers
– Sofia 2024, an event organized by Aegee Sofia, Aegee academy and Estiem.
The main objective of the project was to train new Trainers from the
aforementioned associations in order to increase the pool of trainers available in the
European circuit.

Thanks to the contribution of professional trainers from both
associations, I was able to learn the basics of nonformal learning and
adult education.
Participation in extensive and dynamic sessions throughout the week,
composed of experiential workshops and moments of theoretical teaching, were
developed with a strong emphasis on the practical dimension of the activities.

Mainly, the concepts I had the opportunity to learn more about were those of the
Debrifing, the Kolb cycle, active listening, feedback development, cotraining, presentation, goal development, and in general a whole
series of activities, such as storytelling and role-playing, designed to develop a
methodology of adult education.

The cooperative dimension within which the whole event took place (the hostel where we
stayed, the moments of sharing during meals, and of course the activities
mentioned above) allowed me to spend seven days of full-immersion in constant
contact with a stimulating environment and people. The importance of these stimuli along
throughout the week, in my opinion, was of paramount importance in the
learning process, as much as the other organizational elements of the activities
proposed.
This made long and sometimes very intense activities more enjoyable and
dynamic than I could have previously expected.

A further 12 committed participants and new trainers from all over Europe.
In this regard I would like to thank, for their effort in keeping the sessions orderly and
effective sessions, to engage me and the other participants with spirit and passion, and
in general for their professionalism, Trainers Lia Touska and Anastasia Sidiropoulou
of Aegee Academy, Merve Aksoy & Krzysztof Figas of Estiem.
Undoubted thanks must also go to Marin Ivanov and all the
members of Aegee Sofia for their commendable efforts in hosting,
in supporting and supervising the participants and trainers.

Last of all, of course, I cannot but mention the tribe members who have
shared joys and labors with me, making this experience as unique as it was:
Afroditi Deilogkou (Aegee Brussels), Jake Asmah (Aegee Budapest), Stefania
Costea (Estiem), Gwendolyn Hermans (Aegee Maastricht), Joao Picarra (Estiem),
Tom Louis (Estiem), Yasser (Aegee Kopenhagen), Saskia Kolberg (Aegee Tartu),
Sude Oner (Estiem), Eszter Farkas (Estiem) and Peter Polenszki (Estiem).
In summary, I thoroughly enjoyed this experience, the most important aspect that it
left is the sincere interest in adult education. For my future I hope to
take this first step to higher and higher levels, and contribute in a pro-active way
to the development of the people around me.

– Simone Filipponi