What is the Trainers Pool (TP) of the Youth Department of the Council of Europe?
Established in 1990, the TP is a group of trainers and educational consultants that the Youth Department (YD) works with on a regular basis in the implementation of its programme of activities. Membership in the TP is based on selection on criteria defined by the Department (see criteria and admission procedure below). The membership in the Pool is revised periodically to allow for new expertise and young trainers to join.
Why a Trainers' Pool?
The training courses and other educational activities planned and organised within the programme of the Youth Department of the Council of Europe, must be run by experienced and reliable educational staff. Each study session of the European Youth Centres in Budapest and Strasbourg must be carried out with an educational advisor as a member of the preparatory team. Training courses are also prepared and run by intercultural teams of educational consultants, trainers and facilitators with experience in non-formal learning, youth work and intercultural learning, as well as specific other expertise, according to the activity profile. The trainers in the Pool support and complement the work of the educational advisors and administrators in the Education and Training Division.
What are TP members concretely asked to do?
Members of the Trainers Pool are contacted to participate in the running of several different types of educational activity as indicated in the annual programme of the Directorate of Democratic Citizenship and Participation. Depending on their competencies, TP members are contacted, and later some of them are contracted as:
- External training consultants at study sessions of international youth organisations replacing the YD educational advisor;
- Members of preparatory teams which prepare, run and evaluate training courses;
- Members of preparatory teams which prepare, run and evaluate seminars ;
and occasionally
- General Rapporteurs or editors for reports about the activities ;
- Lecturers and experts providing a short input for the above mentioned activities.
Note: Membership of the Trainers Pool does not guarantee the offer of contracts to any member of the Trainers Pool. Contracts to Pool members are offered according to the needs of the Directorate, usually two times per year. In the past 2 years an open call to Pool members soliciting their interest for study sessions and certain training courses was established as regular procedure.