Transcript guidelines - AEGEE Europe

HOW TO MAKE
A WORKSHOP ON...
EVERY EU RELATED TOPIC
Y VOTE 2014
EUROPEAN STUDENTS’ FORUM
If you are reading this that means that you are
interested in the European Union affairs. Or
you like conducting trainings. Or maybe you
want to make people go and vote in the next
European Parliament elections 2014.
Probably all of these reasons are more or less
true to you and if you are still hesitating
whether you should conduct a workshop to
young people about EU or not, this document
will help you decide that yes, you should!
Y YOTE 2014
We will help you prepare and we will provide you with
some tips and ideas of how to make your workshop
attractive and interesting for participants.
But remember – these are only suggestions. You may
follow them closely, you can get inspired by them or you
can decide that there is nothing useful and you want to
make a workshop in your own way.
The point is – if we, young people, want to have a say in
Europe, we need to make a clear stand that we care and
our suggestions have to be considered. The way to do it
is voting. In previous elections, the percentage of young
people turnout was really low. So, will you help us to
change the future and statistics? Of course, the decision
is up to you(th)!
Y YOTE 2014
TO START WITH
First of all – you need a topic. We provide you with
3 PowerPoint presentations on EU related topics:
a. How does the EU works?
b. Impact of the EU on our daily lives
c. The power of voting
You can use them along with the information
documents attached to them and alter them to
your needs, topic and audience. You can also do a
workshop on other EU-related topic.
Y VOTE 2014
TO START WITH
Secondly, there is some basic information you need to prepare
before conducting a workshop:
AIM OF WORKSHOP – you can modify it a bit but the point of
workshops is to inform participants about the EU and their
rights, and encourage them to vote.
TARGET GROUP - young people, but who exactly (students,
AEGEEans, high school students…) it is up to you.
METHODOLOGY – it means ways to reach the aim, like: team
work, brainstorming, discussions, presentations…
TOOLS AND MATERIALS NEEDED - like: projector, white board,
pens; this information will help you list all the materials and
make sure you do not forget to have them provided.
TIME – how much time you will have? School lesson?
University lesson?
Y VOTE 2014
PREPARATIONS
BEFORE THE WORKSHOP
You have a topic and you have decided how it should (more or
less) look like? Great! But that is not the end, the next thing for
you to do is to answer the questions listed below. They are
supposed to help you tailor what and how you will be
presenting to the participants:
a. How old will be the participants? Are they still high school
students or they are university students? Maybe they do not
study but work? Or maybe they are unemployed?
b. What is their knowledge of the European Union? Do they
know something, nothing or they know the structure of the
EU pretty well?
c. What is their attitude towards the EU institutions?
Y VOTE 2014
PREPARATIONS
BEFORE THE WORKSHOP
You can also consider making a survey covering these issues
before your workshop.
It is important to know answers to these questions, because
the content of this workshop should be adjusted to the
participants. The presentation we provide you with should be a
base and you should modify it to make it appropriate for your
target group.
Y VOTE 2014
TASKS
BEFORE THE WORKSHOP
Before the workshop, you should ask yourself whether it is
possible (and useful) to contact the participants before the
workshop to give them some tasks. If yes, you may e.g. ask
them to think of something related to the topic of your
workshop, like how they think their country would look like if it
was not a Member State of the EU.
You can also divide them into few groups (if they can work
together) or assign a separate presentation topic to every
participant. You can ask them to make a very short
presentation on an interesting aspect about European
Parliament or voting.
Y VOTE 2014
WORKSHOP
Now it is time for you to shine! Be informative, well-prepared,
innovative, engaging, encouraging! Spread interest of the EU!
To do that, you need more than just a PowerPoint presentation.
Think of new ways to present knowledge to participants and
to engage them to actively participate – both during your
workshop and later in their lives.
Y VOTE 2014
WORKSHOP
There are some examples of actions you can take to involve them in your
workshop:
a. Ask them to prepare presentations;
b. Ask the participants to brainstorm on EU/EP achievements. You can
give them a list of areas of impact of the EU or give them a list of
competences of the EU. You can also watch this video with them
http://www.whathaseuropedone.eu/index.php as an introduction for
brainstorming;
Y VOTE 2014
WORKSHOP
c.
d.
You can ask them questions:
 Which of the EP achievements is the most important for you?
Maybe there is something you would not be able to live without?
 How your life would look like, if your country were not a Member
State of the EU?
 There is constantly something going on in Brussels. But what has
actually changed in your life after accession of your country? Or
what can be changed in few years of participation?
Make surveys on their expectations of workshop and level of
knowledge about the topic – before and after your workshop;
Y VOTE 2014
WORKSHOP
e.
f.
g.
Do simulations, e.g. voting simulation or decision-making
process simulation with them;
Prepare an Oxford debate;
Ask them to work in small groups and to e.g. prepare set of
rules how to vote based on relevant pieces of legislature, or
prepare a campaign on how to increase voting turnout, or
prepare videos (or scripts to videos) encouraging people to
vote; or write a letter to a MEP on an issue important to
them.
Y VOTE 2014
WORKSHOP
Keep in mind, that during your presentation you can use general
data, but you can also adjust it to information about
participants’ country. The EU has influenced every Member State
in a different way. There are, on one hand, founding countries
who have been members for 50 years and on the other there is
Croatia which joined the EU on 1st July 2013.
Real changes the EU bring are long-term improvements and they
can be seen and analysed after some years of membership. In
general, you can point out several aspects of the EU influence on
daily life of its citizens.
And finally, the most important part – ask them about voting – if
they intended to vote before the workshop and if the workshop
changed their attitude or not.
Y VOTE 2014
FOLLOW-UP
As always, project, and your workshop is a project and also part
of bigger project – Y Vote 2014 It’s up to You(th)!, doesn not end
when you leave the training room. There are some important
tasks now:
a. There is the impact measurement part to do;
b. Were there people interested in performing some local
actions within the Y Vote 2014 project? If so, collect their email addresses, provide them with ways to contact us and let
us know!
Y VOTE 2014
And at the end, we want to thank you for preparing a workshop
in the framework of the Y Vote 2014 It’s up to You(th)! Project!
[email protected]
http://aegee.org/yvote2014/
https://www.facebook.com/YVote2014
https://twitter.com/YVote14
Y VOTE 2014
Y VOTE 2014
EUROPEAN STUDENTS’ FORUM