The April Vet Pro SKills Exchange programme to Berlin, Germany was an amazing experience. It was a great opportunity to learn and understand how professionals in germany work with, encourage and support the young people in Germany. Before going on the trip, I was keen to see mainly the difference between England and Germany in their social welfare system for young people. As a social worker myself who works with young people on a day to day basis, I was interested to whether Germany were tackling similar issues in terms of welfare for young people such as gang culture, youth violence, young people who are NEETS, youth unemployment and so on. I was also interested to gather and exchange information and ideas of best practice with other professionals in Germany who work with young people.
Not only did the exchange programme meet my expectations, but it exceeded them all. I was able to visit several organisations that worked with young people in diverse ways to support them and provide opportunities for them to better their life chances. Companies such as KOSH automobiles and QEU university were amongst these. Through these experience we were able to unserstand Germany's drive towards keeping youth unemployment low especially through the area of apprenticeships and the prominent value placed on them.We also had the privilege of having a talk with the Hellesdorf town mayor who gave us a brief overview of the five year plan to eliminate youth unemployment in his town. Although seeming highly ambitious, the details of his plan and certain skills involved in this seemed executable and transferrable to other institutions and countries.
The trip also provided an opportunity to see and find out about a different country, city, culture, social norms and so on. As a person who seldom travels out of England, this made me question and also appreciate systems and life in other countries as well as my own. It broadened my awareness of the vast opportunities the world has to offer and this is one of the key things that I now express to the young people I work with and come across.
I would like to thank all at the wonderful Kids and Co Hellesdorf for a wonderful stay, everyone was so welcoming and accomodating from the professionals to even the students who helped us when we were unable to translate some English words to German. I would also like to appreciate all at Embrace who provided and organised this fantastic initiative. It was a brilliant way not only to learn from professionals in Germany but also to learn from professionals in other parts of England, as we were eight in a group from different professions in different parts of England. It was a double whammy! I am so glad I was opportuned to go on this trip and I would most definitely recommend it to all professionals with relevant interest.
