On-arrival training, Rimini

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!

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.