Focus Group
Project “YOUth Ambassadors of Non-Formal Learning”
Country: Serbia
Organization: NGO IUVENTA
Facilitator: Dijana Puskar
Date and location: 23. Jun 2020
List of questions for Focus Group
- Do you think for NFE is important age, gender, nationality?
Certainly not. These things are not considered in the NFE. It is interesting to see how age loses its significance when, for example, we have a trainer or facilitator who is younger than the participants. In formal education this is more than a rare case.
- What does NFE mean to you? Can you define?
Participants agree that NFE is one process. You are taking and giving at the same time. NFE give to us a chance to acquire skills or knowledge that are not required, but very often mean much more to us than those we acquire through formal education.
- Have you ever been a participant in an NFE program? If yes – in which one?
All of them was part of some youth exchange, training courses or some voluntary activities at local level. Also almost all of them is on some way part of NGO and they trying to be active at local level.
- Do you know something about Youth Law / Strategy / Action Plan, as well as other documents related to youth?
Most are familiar with documents related to youth. But on the other hand, they are not very familiar with the content of these documents. In their opinion, most of the documents are incomprehensible to young people.
5. Have you ever participated in the youth decision-making process? If yes, in which one?
In general, participants were not involved in decision-making processes. In their opinion, that is one of the big problems. Decisions regarding young people are usually made without the participation of young people.
- Do you think that more support from the Government is needed to improve the status of young people and in the NFE sphere? If yes, what are the benefits of this, and what are the disadvantages?
For sure we need more support. Young people are full of ideas, but they do not have full support to implement those ideas. Greater financial assistance from the state is needed, as well as financing of a larger number of local projects. Also, participants believe that the state should further promote NFEs and NFO-related activities. With the help of the state the infrastructure for holding trainings and seminars should be better developed, and in every town and village there should be a space that NGOs can use for free to work with young people.
- Does NFE activities help you for your personal development. If yes, how? If not, why?
NFE activities helped to participants in their personal development. Thanks to NFE activities they improved social skills, communication skills, team work skills, management skills, think out of the box. They improved competencies which is today needed to enter in the labor market. They especially emphasized the importance of participating in international activities and working with young people from different countries.
- For you, why is it important to be involved in activities through non-formal education?
Life is school where we every day learn some new things. By participating in NFE activities we not only learn, we meet new people, make new friendships, learn from each other, learn about different cultures and customs. We are expanding our horizons and on this way, together we are building a better and more secure future.
- Does virus Covid19 influence on non-formal education and how in your opinion?
Covid 19 stop us to travel, to work together, to meet each other.
