The story how Ljubljana, rain and four groups of Erasmus+ participants became best friends

Primera courses team is happy to look back at successful and exciting second week in May. We are proud to be able to organise four different courses in our beloved Ljubljana. Once again we combined exploring Slovenia with developing diverse and useful skills. Our participants were learning and improving their skills in the scope of four different topics: Building Relationships & Effective Conflict Management, Developing Effective Communication Skills, Peer Coaching and Teaching Creativity in Schools.

49 eager participants came from all over Europe to attend courses held by our awesome trainers Janja, Ana, Nastja, Blanka and Andrej. According to feedbacks on the evaluation sheets trainers did a great job. Nastja got straight 6 on evaluation scale (1 – bad, 6 – excellent), one participant wrote down “I love Blanka”, Ana was perceived as a very helpful person, and most of participants stated that trainers were really well prepared and approachable. Participants were also satisfied with how trainers passed quality knowledge, provided information and worked on practical examples.

Participants from the course Developing Effective Communication Skills wanted to improve their communication skills, learn some techniques and change inefficient communication patterns and strategies. They haven’t only learnt about it, but also got additional information about transactional analysis as a base for more effective communication. One of the participants wrote down: “I learned that in every person could be 3 different ego states: parent, adult and child, and it’s my decision which ego state I choose in every moment.” During the course we were practicing how to stay in adult ego state more often and consequently have more effective communication.

Teaching Creativity group led by Nastja brought creative restlessness. Mind set of each participant was challenged by various creative exercises. It was interesting to see how participants were doing their homework on the bus on the way to Bled lake. They had to collect ideas what a simple sketch could mean and they were able to gather 100 different ideas. Similar exercises during the course helped participants to broaden their minds and get new ideas, learn about innovative methods and think in a more effective way.

The best way to show the satisfaction of participants attending Peer coaching course is through their comments at the end of the course:

• “The course has a great value to both professional and personal life.”
•  “Thank you for all the hard work, dedication and for effort. A great time! I really learnt a lot and will develop on knowledge, skills and competences you have passed on! You really did a great job from your heart.”
• “I was really, really impressed with organisation of the course + kindness, openness towards each participant – a great week, thank you!”

In the fourth course, Building Relationships & Effective Conflict Management, participants learned about Relationship Awareness Theory with the help of SDI questionnaire. Questionnaire and additional lectures gave participants an insight into their motivational system, relationship strategies and managing conflictsstyles. By raising awareness into dynamics of relationships and interpersonal conflicts participants could contribute to their personal development. Additionally, participants were engaged in various exercises and creative discussions to transfer theoretical knowledge into other everyday contexts.

What all four courses had in common were interesting and useful topics, new and creative ideas for work and life, innovative teaching methods, quality materials, excellent trainers, meeting new people, getting familiar with different cultures and sharing of the ideas, knowledge and experiences.

“It was a nice experience – good blend of learning and enjoying time” said one of the participants. Of course! Because during the week we haven’t forgotten about fun and pleasurable activities. For the start, we were seeking hidden “treasures” in Ljubljana through scavenger hunt and concluded the evening in Poligon creative centre. We also visited Bled where the rain couldn’t ruin the amazing landscape and relaxing afternoon, Postojna cave where we met the human fish and some of us also managed to climb a loooot of stairs to experience true Slovenian nature at waterfall Savica near lake Bohinj.
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We look back to this exciting week with joy and positive feelings. It truly was an awesome experience, filled with knowledge, ideas, meeting new friends and simple little pleasures. We are grateful to all our wonderful participants for their active participation, great atmosphere they created and new friendships. And an added value of the week was not only our colleague Tina whose assistance was much appreciated, but also the fact that Ljubljana managed to impress our guests although despite the rain :). The May is not yet over, but we already look forward to June, July and our next Erasmus+ courses.