“Youth unemployment ? No, thanks !”

The youth exchange took place in Vanatun Guesthouse, near Dilijan (Armenia). The program brought together 23 young participants from 6 different countries (Armenia, Italy, Portugal, Georgia, Turkey, and France). Throughout the exchange, young people shared their knowledge and experience on how to combat unemployment, the skills needed for job seeking in the 21st century, how to access the labor market and what are the necessary employability and entrepreneurship skills in Europe nowadays.

The participants came from different backgrounds and the activities of the project were an opportunity for them to get to know each other and learn about unemployment and how to fight it in their countries. One of the most exciting activities for the participants was “Theatre of the Oppressed” where the participants had a chance to portray different scenarios of people being oppressed and bullied due to various factors and suggest options to solve these problems.

The participants also really enjoyed Kutay’s presentation about the « Upwork » platform. It was really interesting and useful for all the participants to understand how the interface works and what kind of opportunities it provides. Everyone also enjoyed the intercultural evenings. Each delegation had its own evening to share the characteristics of its culture in an entertaining way. After videos presenting the respective countries, quizzes where the winner could have a small souvenir from the friendly country, and tasting good food and drinks, the participants learned the traditional dances and ended the evening by singing the songs in different languages. The exchange ended with the presentation of future projects to be realized with Erasmus +. One of them suggested to the participants (in a fictitious way) to meet again 30 years later to check if the knowledge and skills acquired during these 10 days were used to fight against youth unemployment. To be continued…