Me and Lela Bozinovska, we are glad that from 9^th to 15^th August, we had an opportunity to be selected as participants for the Training Course in Wuppertal, Germany. The main topic of the project was “Respond to your NEET”. At the beginning of the course, we were introduced with the acronym “ NEET – Not in Education, Employment, or Training” that is a term that refers to young people who are not involved in education, training and employment. In addition to this interesting topic, we learnt many methods of working with those people. During this training course we were introduced more closely to Erasmus + program and all the opportunities that it offers. We really enjoyed the international evening where we presented Macedonia with ajvar and rakija and a short funny quiz about our country. We also had the chance to taste typical dishes from different countries across Europe that were prepared by the rest of the participants (Spain, Portugal, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Austria, Bulgaria And Cyprus).

The most useful part for us was the preparation of an action plan, a design of a conceived project that would be realized in the future. We had an opportunity to create, write and implement a project by team work and simulation. It was really useful workshop. The trainers noted that the participants really had unique and creative ideas for projects that could be realized in the future. We learnt how to prepare a video CV, we divided into groups and made 5 video CVs which were presented and analyzed afterwards. During the following session we presented the organization of Volunteers Center Skopje, we introduced it to the other participants in details, the organizational structure of VCS, the activities, the possibilities it offers, they had the opportunity to receive a copy of VOICES magazine. At the end of the training course, an informal ceremony was held, we were awarded with Youth Pass certificates for participation in the training.

I can say that besides education, during the training course we enjoyed the beauty of Germany. Wuppertal is an amazing city in North-West Germany, where despite the rainy weather we managed to visit and admire greenery, small forests with huge trees where local people relax daily. City’s characteristic is paved railway line which we used as transport.It was a very interesting and unusual experience for us. It is set 8 meters above city streets and 12 meters above the Wupper River. Also, the city is famous for Frederick Engels’ birth house, which today is a museum that we didn’t manage to visit, because of the long sessions and short free time. But we sincerely hope that one day we will return again to Wuppertal and manage what we failed to see and visit. We met different people from different countries with whom we shared unforgettable moments and experiences, and we hope to meet them again,one day.

Ana Jankuloska