Overseas Links and Training

Finding reliable partner organisations in other countries, particularly less known countries that may be priorities for certain European Union (EU) programmes, is not easy.  Nor can anyone, Connect Europ included, guarantee how reliable a potential new partner will be.  There are now more and more ‘linking’ services offered by national agencies and other responsible bodies to help with this, but meeting people and forming a mutual understanding is still the most reliable method of creating meaningful partnerships.  

Unfortunately, funding is rarely available for link-making visits or pre-project planning meetings although there are sometimes opportunities to join delegations, study tours, conferences or training courses where new partners can sometimes be found. For example within higher education there are two main bodies that organise large international conferences where delegates spend a lot of time and effort networking and finding potential new contacts e.g the European Association for International Education (EAIE) and the Institute of International Education (IIE)

Why not talk to Connect Europ about strategies and network contacts to begin the process of identifying reliable new partners? Mike has been actively networking, organising international projects, running and attending conferences and training courses and taking part in link-making visits and other similar exercises for more than thirty years.  For long periods he also coordinated all international links for the City of Manchester and Strathclyde Regional Council education departments and worked closely with International Social and Educational Exchanges (ISEE), the Scottish Community Education Council (SCEC), the Central Bureau for Educational Visits and Exchanges (CBEVE), the British Council, the Commonwealth Youth Exchange Council, East Europe Interchange and the European Youth Centre.

Training

Connect Europ may also be able to help you with any international training needs you may have as this has always been one of his main interests.  He was responsible for the training of local youth leaders as far back as 1978, and when he specialised in the development of international exchanges and links by moving to Manchester and then Strathclyde in the mid 1980’s the responsibility for training in this field became authority-wide.  As chair of the International Committee of the National Youth Workers Union in the 1980’s he was also a member of the Central Bureau and British Council training and grants committees and helped to organise the first German, French and British youth workers training course.  Since then he has worked as a trainer for the International Sonnenberg Centre, the Coordinating Committee for International Youth Exchanges (CCEYE) and the European Youth Centre in Strasbourg as well as himself organising a number of EU funded international level training courses; for examples of some of these see his Record of International Activities.