Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

You should have an average level in reading, writing and comprehending English in order to take the e-VELP course and prepare your own workshop. Of course, it’s an important bonus if you are personally motivated to improve your skills, become a part of a bigger network of VEs, and share your passion with others.

You should be eager to host the workshop you create during the course to diverse groups of people.

Basically, as a VE, you can prepare a workshop on anything that you are good at, and we will be there to support you! For example, you can give a workshop on how to write poetry, learn how to draw or how to play chess. However, if it’s a workshop that requires deep knowledge on the subject by the VE, we would prefer that you have studied or worked in that field before.

With 70% correct quiz results and complete assignments submission, you will get the final certificate and Youthpass.

You will learn within 5 chapters

• how to put together your workshop proposal
• how to develop your pedagogical skills
• how to enhance your communication and intercultural skills
• how to develop your marketing and networking skills
• how to create the perfect workshop content

In each chapter you will do quizzes and submit assignments.

• about workshop methods and how to structure a workshop
• how to plan and execute your workshop

For the VE-course in general:

For participating within the RAISE program to get an individual learning plan and a special guidance with the option to travel to Romania: Please fill in this Google Form and we will get back to you asap. It is great if you already know your workshop topic. In that case you don’t need to identify your existing skills, knowledge & attitudes, you can start learning

To become a Volunteer Educator (VE) you need to be a migrant, refugee or asylum-seeker, 18-35 years old and residing in an EU country. You should have an average level in reading, writing and comprehending English in order to take the e-VELP course and prepare your own workshop. Of course, it’s an important bonus if you are personally motivated to improve your skills, become a part of a bigger EU network of VEs, and share your passion with others.

Volunteer Educators (VEs) will deliver workshops to members of the host community or members of their ethnic community, or ideally, both! Of course, in order to be able to offer workshops to the host community, VEs should have good knowledge of the local language or be fluent in English. Basically, as a VE, you can prepare a workshop on anything that you are good at, and we will be there to support you! For example, you can give a workshop on how to write poetry, learn how to draw or how to play chess. However, if it’s a workshop that requires deep knowledge on the subject by the VE, we would prefer that you have studied or worked in that field before.

As a Volunteer Educator (VE) you will be supported by one Volunteer Educator-Trainer (VE-T) who will help you materialise your best workshop idea.

To become a Volunteer Educator (VE), you need to take an online course – the e-VELP course – that has a duration of about 40-60 hours (depending on your pace and level). Additionally, you will be provided support by a Volunteer Educator-Trainer (VE-T) to guide you on how to create and facilitate workshops. By the end of this process, you will be able to deliver a high-quality workshop and live the experience of being an educator for others.

To become a Volunteer Educator (VE), you need to take an online course – the e-VELP course – that has a duration of about 40 hours. Additionally, you will be provided support by a Volunteer Educator-Trainer (VE-T) to guide you on how to create and facilitate workshops. By the end of this process, you will be able to deliver a high-quality workshop and live the experience of being an educator for others.

At the moment, we are building an Artificial Intelligence Coaching Tool that will make this course as tailored to you as possible. Therefore, before starting to take the course, you will fill in a short questionnaire to receive your customised learning programme.

• • After taking the course (approx. 40 hours) you will be asked to review the e-course elements that you skipped at first based on the suggestion of the AI tool. After doing so, we will have a short talk to tell us what you think about the AI tool. The review and feedback phase will take approx. 4 hours.
  • When you complete the course, you will be able to deliver your own workshop and get the Vilnius University certification.
• Optional: Some Volunteer Educators (VEs) will have the chance to join a professional, four-day training in Romania in May 2023, where they can provide their workshop to an international audience, alongside other VEs from across Europe.

It will be in the week of May 8 – 12, 2023, and will last for 4 days. During the live training, the VEs can do the last chapters in a team and together with the trainers in person. During the training you can finalise their workshop and demo it to fellows and professional trainers to get exclusive feedback. The goal of the live training is that you will then have better and stronger chances to find employment or seek further education opportunities. Additionally, it opens up new career paths and opportunities for you: with the university-certified training and real-world experience in creating and offering quality workshops, you can start a new career path as workshop facilitator, trainer, or educator.

The AI coaching tool will customise the course content based on your individual experience and needs. Before starting the course, you will complete a short questionnaire that the tool can estimate which chapters of the course will be relevant to you and which can be skipped. This tool helps you save time and energy.

No, this course has been public for the past year, and has already been tested and approved. What we want from you is to tell us what you think about the AI coaching tool that we added on the e-course.

As part of the RAISE program, you need to take the course in between the months February to May 2023. To complete the course which also includes giving feedback on the AI tool and hosting a workshop will need a time commitment of approx. 45-60 hours based on your individual pace in the range of two months.

Without the RAISE prgram you can start and finish the course whenever you want and in your individual pace. We recommend a maximum period of 2 month to have a quality workshop as a result. However, if something blocks you in between you can proceed later anytime.

No. You will only need to take the classes as suggested by the AI tool, and then invest about 4 more hours to explore the rest of the content of the course to tell us whether you think you missed something important. You could also work through the skipped chapters if you like.

For the course we estimate you’ll need about 40-60 hours for

• Read and reflect the course content
• Taking quizzes
• Doing assignments
• Co-working with your VE-Trainer
• Hosting the workshop

depending on your individual level and pace.

For the course we estimate you’ll need about 40-60 hours and a maximum of 5 hours helping us test and improve the AI coaching tool.

• Do the questionnaire to receive your individual custom learning plan
• Read and reflect the course content
• Taking quizzes
• Doing assignments
• Co-working with your VE-Trainer
• Hosting the workshop
• Review the skipped chapters and join feedback session for the RAISE tool

depending on your individual level and pace.

Optional: Join our live training in Romania and invest another 4 days of coahing and practice for your successful future.

No. We believe that each of us has something to share no matter if you learned it from university or if life taught you it. In the beginning of the course, you will learn how to assess your skills and define your workshop topic.

It depends on when you can start and how fast you complete the course and find a host organisation where you can offer the workshop. We estimate a period of 2 months between starting the course and delivering the workshop. The workshops within the RAISE program should be delivered in the first half of 2023. Some workshops can be delivered in the live training in Romania in May 2023.

You can still take the e-VELP course in general and within the RAISE program to receive your individual learning plan and special guidance. To complete the course by delivering your workshop you will learn how to promote your workshop to host organisations across Europe to finally host it to an audience (either online or face-to-face). You could also join the live training in Romania but you would need to bear the travel costs on your own.

If you are located in a city with organisations whose communities match your target group, we are sure you will find organisations that will be glad to host your workshop. During the VE course, you will prepare all the promotional material and be able to identify and communicate with potential host organisations. If there is no target audience in the place you are located, you can also find your right audience online. The e-VELP team can be there to help you connect to the right organisation.

Yes, but for some activities, like preparing the workshop content or writing a workshop proposal it will be necessary to have access to a desktop computer. If you don’t have access, please contact the e-VELP team so we can connect you to organisations that might help you out on this.

Yes of course! Please check out these pages and channels:

The prospecting VE-Trainers are anchored in their local (job) community, need to master English at a good level and be motivated to coach young people frome different cultures on a volunteering basis.

When you choose to become a Volunteer Educator Trainer (VE-T), you will take the e-VELP online course for VE-Trainers (estimated 20 hours). As the educated VE-Trainer you need to commit to give individual support to VEs and help them deliver the VE-course in order to create and facilitate their own quality workshops with the purpose to share their knowledge (est. 5-10 hours for each VE).

When you choose to become a Volunteer Educator Trainer (VE-T) within the RAISE program, you will take the e-VELP online course for VE-Trainers (estimated 20 hours) in the beginning of 2023. As the educated VE-Trainer you need to commit to give individual support to VEs between February and May 2023 and help them deliver the VE-course in order to create and facilitate their own quality workshops with the purpose to share their knowledge (est. 5-10 hours for each VE).

Additionnaly we will present our AI coaching tool, to make this course the mo-st customized for VEs, with you and need to collect your feedback to ensure to create a viable, desirable, and usable product.
Optional: You have the chance to join a professional 4-day training on May 8-12, 2023, in Romania, with other VE-T participants in order to train the VEs in person, help them deliver their workshop and discuss with the project organizations about the AI coaching tool.

The training in Romania will take place between May 8-12, 2023, with a duration of 4 full days. During the live training, the VE-Ts will be supporting the VEs taking the course offline, as trainers. Besides that, we will pilot test and evaluate the AI coaching tool with all participating VE-Trainers. We will collect your feedback and integrate it into the final AI coaching tool. This way we ensure to create a viable, desirable, and usable product. The report we will then produce will play an essential role in attracting more youth organisations and youth workers across Europe to adopt the AI Tool in their assessment and educational services for young refugees and migrants.

This depend on your availability. You can assist 1-4 VEs at a time to help them make the best out of their workshop idea.

Per VE we estimate a weekly time investment of minimum 1h within a time period of 2 months . The co-working can be done online or if you have the chance also in person.

To take the VE-T course you will be working asynchronously on your own. You can exchange through a forum with participants, and you can join workgroup sessions organised online.

After you registered via www.teachsurfing.org, you will choose your e-VELP role. After you finished the course, the e-VELP team will get in touch with you to connect you to your VE.

The e-VELP program is designed that the mentoring and assistance can be done online. Nevertheless we try to match you with a VE in the same city. If you can arrange offline meet ups – this will be a big plus for everyone. If you struggle finding a place to meet, please contact the e-VELP team. We might know organisations who can help.

The AI coaching tool will customize the VE course content based on the participants’ individual experience and needs. Before starting the course, the VEs will fill in a questionnaire so the tool can estimate which chapters of the course will be relevant for them and which can be skipped. This tool helps them save time and energy.

In the second step after the RAISE program, this tool will be provided to youth workers as an adaptable framework. It will enable them to save time and resources, and hence to scale their programs and services to young refugees and migrants.

No, this course has been public for the past year, and has already been tested and approved. What we want from you is to tell us what you think about the AI coaching tool that we added on the e-course.

You will need to be available between January and May 2023. To complete the VE-Trainer course, which also includes coaching the VEs and giving feedback on the AI coaching tool, it will take a minimum of 2 months.

Breaking it down into hours:

• Taking the course is 20 hours
• Supporting 1 VE is about 5-10 hours (1h per week per VE)
• Giving feedback on the AI coaching tool will take another 3 hours
• Optional: Participating at the live training in Romania will be 4 more days (plus travel time)

So, the estimated total time you’ll need to commit is about 40 hours in a two-month period. If you decide to join the live training in Romania it will be another 4 days in May 2023.

You don’t need to have that. VE-Trainers can be located everywhere inside or outside the EU. They can take the course online and asynchronously and can support the VEs through video calls, emails, collaboration in documents, forums, and so on.

Yes, for sure!

Of course you can do both! If you delivered the VE course and know all the content, it makes you the perfect VE-Trainer.

Once you are a VE-Trainer, you are always a VE-Trainer. We will have you in our pool of VE-Trainers and might contact you again if we have a VE that would need your help. Of course it is up to you and your availability if you keep on assisting. We keep in touch!

This is how to start: