Between 28th of April and 2nd of May 2022, 16 youth workers from Romania and Italy united in Timisoara, Romania for a short-term staff training. Our main purpose of this meeting was to put in practice and test the methods and instruments presented in our manual Online methods to be used in training the young musicians.
The manual is a repository of online tools and methods that can be employed in the work with young people who are passionate about music and who want to pick up a career in music.
Given the fact that the project was developed during the pandemic, the online methods were highly praised so there were internal questions about the validity of these instruments in the post-pandemic period. What we discovered is that both youth workers and young people have become somewhat familiar with the online tools and they feel so comfortable in using them that they are here to stay.
The activities we conducted during the training course were the following:
Piloting the online communication methods in the guide- ways to use communication platforms and non-formal activities that can be undertaken on these platforms- Zoom, Webex, Google Meet.
Piloting the management methods in the guide- young musicians as well as young people who want to take up a career in music have to be highly organized when doing their activities and setting their objectives: Trello, Agile Methodology, etc.
Piloting some of the simplest online tools to be used for music creation, composition and recognition of songs: Audacity, Garage Band, etc.
During the training we also focused on the potential of Social Media to offer a good context for professional activities in the field of music.
The training has also included physical activities and methods that can be used by youth workers in their training courses: creation of music instruments, self-exploration in order to identify what makes a young person look into the music career, exchange of views on methodologies with other experienced youth workers working in the cultural field.
Last but not least, the training course has offered cultural activities in Timisoara: concert at the Philharmonic, Opera at the National Opera in Timisoara Theatre play at the independent theater Auăleu, visit of the cultural center FABER and also a visit at the Communist Consumer Museum .
The results of the training course are important:
Better knowledge of common tools and methods;
First contact with new tools;
An environment of cooperation and mutual trust;
Preparedness to work with young musicians online.
Feedback from the youth workers was consistent and relevant:
Paulo: It was a solid experience and after this intense activity I feel prepared to engage in online activities with young musicians, I feel ready to guide them and to learn from them when the case.
Răzvan: Most of the apps regarding music were not familiar to me, but I discovered they are not difficult to use and for some of them you do not need to be a musician to be able to make them part of your activities.
Georgiana: For me the project is a new territory. The pandemic was a period in which I felt insecure as youth worker, but obviously we have to adapt to the fact that the online is today even more present in our lives. So this training course was definitely useful to me.
