This 5-day LTTA training activity took place in a picturesque village of Somogyvámos in Hungary at the end of August. A month before the LTTA training took place we organized an online training with an expert from Hungary about the project itself and the topic of photo- and videography, which was attended about a dozen of participants and some of the attendees of the online event even came to the LTTA meeting inspired by the online event.
The participants of the meeting were young people, more precisely 2 active young members from each partner organizations – coming from rural areas or communities, or interested in activities of the project and rural entrepreneurship in general.
The meeting in Hungary was focusing on developing entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and competences of the participants in theareas of organic gardening and agriculture, seed banking, food production, restaurant management, animal husbandry of cows and oxen, as well as sustainable cloth making dovetailed with entrepreneurship ideas in rural areas like exotic tree nursery as well as various touristic activities. During the meeting participants visited local enterprises and entrepreneurs to evoke ideas and increase inspiration by learning about good practices.
The first day was the official opening of the project meeting and the introduction of the LTTA participants with an overview of the Rural Entrepreneurship for You(th) project.
We also had a presentation on EMPLAY, which is a tool promoting employability and developing soft or personal and social skills that are useful and valued in current work environments and labour market dynamics. The EMPLAY Planner designed for young people garners a number of possibilities, challenges and clues to explore employability competencies to develop or reinforce them in an autonomous manner or with support of professional workers or facilitators. After the workshop all the participants of the LTTA meeting were encouraged to take advantage and continue on their own with the Planner in order to better themselves in their employability and career endeavours.
In the afternoon the participants were introduced to Youthpass and they could reflect on their expectations about the development of the key competences in relation to the LTTA meeting.
During the second and third day the presentations and workshops focused on various topics of the meeting like basics of sustainability, organic gardening, seed saving and banking, preserving and producing food, animal husbandry, as well as sustainable cloth making, tourism and catering entrepreneurships in an ecovillage. Some of the topics were connected to the model community of Krishna Valley ICCOF, an associated partner of the coordinating organization and a prominent member of the Hungarian Ecovillage Network, therefore, the participants also had the chance to peek in the lifestyle of an eco-village community pursuing rural farming and other ventures with focus on sustainability and self-sufficiency.
During the activities participants could see and experience the potential which was there in a rural environment and which is still there to explore and utilize today. This provided and generated ideas for the participating youth about local entrepreneurial possibilities in countryside areas.
The next days were centred around non-formal, experiential workshops in the morning and afternoon sessions. They represented learning and training activities through which the young participants could put themselves on trial and engage themselves in different workshops aiming at the various rural entrepreneurship projects that were presented to them in the days before. They could learn first-hand about the enterprises and activities mentioned above and could learn from experts and explore the particular fields in practice.
The workshops were designed in a way to follow up the different topics the presentations had introduced like exploring and practicing regenerative organic gardening or preserving the different produces from the garden. The participants also had a chance to learn more about and engage in animal husbandry, keeping cattle, milking cows and working with oxen, and they could also absorb themselves in some ox training activities. Other workshops were focusing on topics like mehndi and body painting, techniques and practices of green household, as well as sustainable cloth making, which were popular among the young ladies of the meeting. Besides this there was a follow-up workshop based on the online training of photo- and videography which was organized before and preceded the training activity.
The LTTA presented ideas and practices to participants which support, promote and inspire self-reliant, sustainable living and entrepreneurship in the countryside, and at the same time enhance youth employment in rural areas. Through the workshops the participants could develop their competences and skills in specific fields of green jobs and rural activities.
Experiencing an eco-friendly lifestyle in the countryside, in the vicinity of an eco-village where sustainable lifestyle is present everywhere, promoted sustainable, eco-friendly, healthy and balanced lifestyle to the young participants.
During the activities participants also had the opportunity to improve different competences such as intercultural or social competences with their peers, which induced appreciation, tolerance and awareness of different cultures, as well as created friendships beyond borders.
