On-arrival Training

In all European Voluntary Service there are three trainings, one before you leave, that I couldn’t enjoy as a matter of time and a sending organization fairly carefree; another to get to your destination, depends on the dates and the organization, my on-arrival training was in my second month here, but not all of us arrived at the same time; and a third and last in the middle of EVS, called mid-term, in my case it´ll be in May.

Today I shall speak of the second one, the on-arrival training. The accommodation was perfect, leave for a few days the routine and meet people in the same situation like you, amazing. We installed in Rosemberk, a small village a few kilometers of Český Krumlov, the most beautiful city in Czech Republic. In Rosemberk there is a castle as you can see from the photo, with a lot of history.

I really liked the organization of the training and the attitude of the trainers. We had two common rooms, one for activities and another rest with fridge, tea and a lovely terrace for smoking. In the activities room the trainers were placed a map of Czech Republic where we noted our cities, a schedule where fixed placed the activities of the week and a mural where propose different activities directed by ourselves. We had the option to carry out our own activities and between all comprise the final timetable.


The trainers gave us smaller workshops of non-formal education, conflict resolution, inter-cultural activities, group dynamics, presentation of the projects (as you can see in the photo), visit to Český Krumlov, Erasmus +, speak Czech in 90 days, tips to carry out major changes in your life, Czech history, viewing of a Czech film, and so on.

I like the content but the best thing about it was the methodology that they used, all courses were given between all, we weren’t teachers and students, we were experts, we did practice activities to understand the content, ask and answer questions, I thought it was one of the best ways to learn, the best educational experience in my live. For our part we did activities such as sports games, a stop motion film, comic book, animated games, secret friend and so on.

One of the things that I liked the most, was at the end of the workshop on non-formal education our trainer we raised an option, try to learn something in ten minutes, I learned to say hello and answer in Irish and Irish singers, only in ten minutes! imagine all that you can learn if you want.It was a great experience, meet people from all corners of Europe, trying to understand you for a week using only english and little czech, wake up so early, staying up late, sleeping little, eating Czech food, with their schedule, so different for Spanish people. We were twenty-seven volunteers and six of us were Spanish volunteers and still remains the least level of English we are the more talkative people, the more we interact, the more desire to teach and learn we have, personally, I am proud of us.

To finish i would like to highlight the experience of a EVS, is a form of be learning each second, there is no moment in which you’ve got something new or teach something new to another person. As an educator is a unique opportunity and as a person a life experience, I recommend to all.