So, what is the on-arrival training? According the Program guide of European Commission,
On-arrival training takes place upon arrival in the
host country. It introduces volunteers to their host country and their host
environment, helps them to get to know each other and supports them to create
an environment that support learning and realising own project ideas. Duration
is on average seven days.
But, as we are in
Italy and things are always a little bit more complicated, my on-arrival
training happened 6 months after my arrival. Due to bureaucratic issues, the
Italian National Agency calls the volunteers to participate to the training a
little bit late and well, sometimes never (as far as I heard!).
So, me and 29 other
volunteers from different countries that are doing an EVS project in Italy were
called to participate for 7 days in the training. As it is centralised, the volunteers
travelled to Rimini from different parts of Italy ( Sicelia, Piemonte,
Naples..) but the tickets were paid and
as well the hotel and the food.
After a test in the Italian language, the group was divided in 2 classes
(beginners and advanced) and we followed a quite intensive Italian course for
the next days. As it is quite impossible to teach all the important things in
language in 7 days, the course was mainly focused in speaking and listening. I
practised a lot my Italian and I can say that in the end I felt more secure and
I was speaking a little bit more fluently! The way that the course was
(interactive) was keeping the interest of the students and because we were
working in groups, nobody felt alone or outside.
Apart from the
language course, plenty other activities took place. Two of them were outdoor, involving the city
of Rimini (taking specific theme pictures and interviewing people) , while
other were inside like for example the workshop on Italian cinema and Italian
history. I felt that the main purpose of
the activities was to build the group, brake the ice between people and help
the individuals to develop self-awareness, towards their project but also their
lives. In my opinion, the trainers succeed in this!
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But as well,
nothing can be perfect, there were some things that I didn't like so much. The the location of the hotel was on the beach, in an quite touristic
area during the summer months but completely deserted in winter. ( I would prefer maybe a lower category hotel but in the city centre- personal opinion!) Another thing ws the few time, that was given to problems and solutions of the EVS. I learnt that in
the past there was one whole day dedicated to this but now it is left only
an afternoon for this activity. Almost all the volunteers had problems ( some they didn’t receive
the reimbursement of their travel tickets, some they were working on a
completely different thing from the once that was assigned in the beginning and
some they didn’t-t even had a real! project) and they really wanted to discuss
about it.
Things learned….
The training helped a lot, in a
professional level but also in a personal. I met people really open and
positive, with a lot of energy and I reflected a lot of important things in my
project.
