Multilingual competence

Was developed working in Dutch-Armenian speaking multilingual environment. The "Netherlands' Diary" paper's target group representatives are both Dutch and Armenian speaking people. Besides as the paper is mostly oriented to the Armenian community, living in the Netherlands, half of the interviewees were Armenians and often did not speak good Dutch, so that the team had to translate. Besides, for every journalistic report in Dutch the volunteers prepared also supportive short text in Armenian / English. Thus, the multilingual competence was perfectly improved during the project.

 

Personal, social and learning to learn competence

Working together the team had space to experience themselves in an interesting and dynamic journalism environment, full of information, events, ideas, local and international connections and active communication. As the team members have different professional backgrounds, they were able to share and gain lots of skills and knowledge from each other. The volunteers improved their social competence through working, cooperating and communicating with each other, with internationals, as well with different local and international interviewees, young people and others in the frame of the projects’ activities and in various situations, such as: planning different project activities and team-building games, organizing small group works, discussions, negotiation and brainstorming sessions, competitions and other interactive activities.

During the Covid situation in the country the group found out the way to efficiently work also online and provide support to the paper.

Learning to learn comp. was improved while doing various researches on diff. topics, developing personal skills and afterwards sharing with the group, as well with the readers thanks to the published final material. Social skills were developed, while conducting interviews. Writing articles and experiencing themselves in journalism the team improved writing skills, their Dutch grammar, as well researching skills. Personal, social and learning to learn competence was improved by reflections and discussions about the importance of self-assessment, periodic and monthly reflections, learning styles, effective non-formal methods (used by the coach and the whole group) and filling out the Youthpass. These made the volunteers to once again come back to themselves and think about their learning habits.

 

Citizenship (Civic) competence

As a desired impact and outcome the youngsters have acquired such actual skills, as leadership, attained the ability to work with internationals, which enhanced their social and civic competences. The project activities improved the citizenship (civic) competence through researches, through communication in the team, as well with different local and international interviewees, young people and others. The volunteers have got awareness of the fundamental values of our society, such as solidarity, tolerance, empathy and respect towards otherness, self-confidence, adaptability. Civic part was improved by the participants, taking up tasks as active citizens, discovering more about the Netherlands and sharing this information with the newspaper's target group, thus supporting them in the process of their full integration into the Dutch society. Also - creating articles on a local level, promoting Solidarity as a value, strong citizenship and volunteering opportunities for the youth.  

 

Entrepreneurship competence

Using NFL methodology and working in international and fun environment, the team was given space to contribute to improvement of that competence. Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship were improved by volunteering and contributing for the project’s activities, its impact and results. The core skills, such as organizational skills and entrepreneurship competence were improved, taking up initiative in the activities and sharing ideas and practices with one another, as well with the coach. Meeting different people, also - successful entrepreneurs, got a lot of practical skills on, for instance, how to do people management in big groups, how to write good project plans for small and big projects. All of the gained and experienced skills they shared with one another, as well with their readers. Coming up with new and fresh ideas, not being afraid to make changes in the newspaper's working procedures - all of these were the basis for entrepreneurship competence’s improvement.

 

The team members had had already started to develop entrepreneurial attitude by taking initiative to implement this Solidarity project. The volunteers did their best to develop Entrepreneurship competence within this project, as well will develop, while taking initiative and coming up with follow-up projects ideas and motivating youth to be involved in such Solidarity and volunteering initiatives.

 

Cultural awareness and expression competence

The team had space to make researches on the topics and had experience in working with different people, having different cultural backgrounds, such as Dutch, Armenian, Russian, American, English, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, etc. The group developed flexibility, while getting ready for their international interviews and taking into consideration the cultural backgrounds and cultural specificities of different interviewees. Through discussions, journalistic reports on cultural topics, on traditional dishes and national music, songs and dances, theatre, literature and other forms of art, as well telling about national festivals in different countries in their journalistic reports, the volunteers gained knowledge about different nations and found out the differences and similarities among their cultures, shared with the target group of the newspaper. Thus they gained skills of expressing their own culture and learned about the others' – their coworkers and sources. As well the cultural awareness and expression competence the initiative volunteers improved, while cooperating with Chinese students, whom they were able to inspire and motivate with their great example to join the hard working team and start volunteering for the newspaper.

 

Digital competence

Mostly all the activities of this Solidarity Project were implemented in the digital space. The team improved skills in video making, working on the web-site, using various tools and applications for Social-Media Marketing, etc.

 

Mathematical competence and competence in science, technology and engineering

That was done through the research, which was based on quantitative and qualitative data gathered and analysed by the volunteers. Also understanding the data was improved during the group discussions.

 

Literacy competence

Was developed thanks to: proofreading, researching and finding necessary sources and reading comprehension, writing articles, video interviews, improving speech and oratorical skills, etc.

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Task specific competences  

Flexibility and problem solving skills were developed, while searching for necessary information and sources for the publications. Creativity and researching skills were developed, while improving the writing competences. Critical thinking and problem solving skills was improved, while writing articles on topics, which included problems. Reporting in short sentences, as well presentation skills were improved in the frame of various interviews and researches on the topic for different journalistic reports. The volunteers have got awareness of the fundamental values of our society, such as solidarity, tolerance, empathy and respect towards otherness, self-confidence, adaptability. As well they developed such key skills, as creativity, flexibility and adaptability, communication and negotiation skills, time and people management, skills to delegate tasks, sense of responsibility, self and people motivation skills, conflict resolution, ability to make decisions, etc. All of the youngsters are standing as a pledge of efficient strong volunteers, youth workers, who actively promote Solidarity as a Value, introducing and spreading the standards and methods of NFL, promoting EU Solidarity Corps and telling about Youthpass.