Sparkling Erasmus+ training(s) in Ljubljana!

Last week (11-15th May) it was even more interesting in Ljubljana than usual! We had the pleasure of hosting 53 participants (teachers, principals and trainers) from 14 countries on our 3 Erasmus+ courses. We’ve learned from each other about educational practices in Estonia, Poland, Turkey, Greece, Portugal, Belgium, Croatia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Spain, Cyprus, Finland, France, Romania and Slovenia.

It was a very intensive week, full of knowledge, international cooperation and experience sharing, as well as fun activities. In the following weeks we’ll present you the details about each Erasmus workshop.

Here we would like to try to share the whole experience of our participants. We were inspired by one of them saying: »Please, let more people know about this, all should have opportunity to take this Erasmus+ course in Slovenia and have an amazing time!«.

Besides the expert trainers that were in charge of developing knowledge, what delighted our participants the most was the social and cultural part of the mobility. Two groups’ courses were held in conference rooms of City Hotel, and one group enjoyed our office’s conference room (situated downtown, at Prešernova 5), where they also had an opportunity to drink tea/coffee on the breaks, prepared with the assistance of director of Skupina Primera itself, Blanka Tacer. 

Every day each group of participants had lunch on different locations in Ljubljana, so participants had the pleasure to enjoy delightful Slovenian cuisine, and get to know the city…. Some of the participants commented that Slovenian cuisine is amazing and that course length shouldn’t be more than 5 days – as that is the only way to stay fit. J In order to make interactive courses even more interactive, one of the groups joined yoga class, the other had part of the training out in Tivoli park.

On Monday, we had a special activity for all participants together, where they were getting to know each other, Slovenian customs and history, discovering the city and having great a time by completing tasks from the Scavenger hunt. Participants were divided in groups and got a set of interesting tasks. In order to solve them, they needed to work as a team, explore Ljubljana and cooperate with the locals. The final task was to arrive to the city museum, where we shared our experience and practical knowledge between the groups – from how to order best cake in Ljubljana in Slovenian, to what the historical symbol of Ljubljana is. We had a museum tour and enjoyed delicious catering in beautiful surroundings of the city museum – tasting Slovenian specialities and wines from all Slovenian regions.

On Wednesday, we had an organized trip to the lake Bled, where we had a guided tour, as well as free time to visit Bled island by boat, climb the fortress or just enjoy the chilling in the sun, drinking coffee and eating famous Bledska kremšnita. We concluded the evening on another location – enjoying the specialities of Slovenian restaurant Jezeršek.

In the other afternoons, participants didn’t have any scheduled activities, but judging by their pictures sparkled with smiles, they took that time very wisely. They enjoyed visiting other tourist destinations in Ljubljana, exploring our shopping mall complex, discovering traditional food, drinks, buying souvenirs, and having a great time going out in international groups. On our final evening together, all participants went out together for a drink of two, where some of them stayed up dancing until late night, enjoying international music. On Friday, when participants evaluated their learning on the course and made action plan for applying it in their professional life, all of the groups gathered together for a farewell lunch. There, many of them made plans to visit each other and visit Slovenia again.

Here we tried to present you at least one piece of the puzzle of the Erasmus+ experience. If YOU would like to combine tasting Slovenian culture and getting the best knowledge from our expert trainers, feel free to apply for our Erasmus training courses that are coming up.
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During summer there will be 3 courses. Teaching entrepreneurship and peer coaching groups are already full, but there are some spots left on the course Building Relationships (06.07.2015 – 10.07.2015.) Also, applications for our autumn courses: Developing Effective Communication Skills (05.10.2015 – 09.10.2015) and Teaching creativity in schools, inspired by Edward de Bono (16.11.2015 – 20.11.2015) are already opened, so feel free to apply and join us!