Involving Galician stakeholders in our activities

The FGE participates together with the Directorate-General for Youth and representatives of the Directorate-General for Cohesion and European Funds, University of Vigo, Compostela Chamber, Directorate-General for Family, Children and Demographic Dynamization, Galician Innovation Agency, University of Santiago de Compostela, EGTC Eurocidade Chaves-Verín, Young Entrepreneurs Association of Ourense, Galician Agency for Rural Development, Don Bosco Youth Federation, in the meeting of monitoring and sharing of activities developed in the framework of the RuralYouthFuture project. seventeen representatives from different departments of the Xunta de Galicia, the Galicia Europa Foundation, the Chamber of Commerce of Santiago de Compostela, the University of Vigo, the Federation of Don Bosco Youth Centers of Galicia, the Amicos association and AJE Ourense attended.

The session, chaired by the General Director of Youth, Lara Meneses, was moderated by Pilar del Oro Sáez from Galicia Europe Foundation. During the session, the activities developed during the visits to Bulgaria and Estonia, partner countries of the RuralYouthFuture project, were shared. This project aims to improve the effectiveness of youth employment policies for sustainable rural development.
 

During the visits, activities were developed that showed the innovative proposals that these countries must improve youth employability in rural areas. 

Regarding Bulgaria, the project CRAFT: CO-WORKING IN RURAL AREAS was highlighted. It is a video game through which young people have to fulfill certain objectives to create their virtual village, providing them with tools in a more didactic way to develop their skills. The RuraLAB 3.0 project was also presented, a digital platform created to provide, through training contents and games, tools that contribute to the employability of young people in rural areas. It also has a guide with the dynamics developed in the project that can be used and implemented by public administrations. Finally, the My Virtual Town project was highlighted, which focuses on training teaching staff through a manual for teachers, events and a web platform created to increase the skills and competencies of teachers for teamwork and cooperation that leads to better development of skills in students.

Regarding Estonia, the Tartu 2024 Extended project was shared, which has six virtual training sessions in which young adolescents are trained to plan, develop and execute cultural events. This initiative will be presented at an online meeting on August 30, 2024.

During the meeting, the importance of the visits to the partner countries of this project was highlighted, which promotes the immersive proposal to learn about the realities and initiatives that are being developed to improve the employability of young people in rural areas. Finally, mention was made of the September meeting in Slovenia, another of the project's partner countries, where establishments that develop economic activities in rural areas will be visited, with the idea of learning how these industries operate in that country.

The following is an extract of the contributions made by the stakeholders in the session.  

They explained the idea of unifying the mentoring programs currently in place in different public councils, applying different approaches according to the specific needs of the young people who participate. They argued that young people should be explained and informed about the functioning of the agricultural sector, mainly in the cities, so that they can learn about life in the rural environment and become interested in becoming “rural entrepreneurs”. 

Mention was made of the need to promote the Professional Cycle, which provides training in professional areas that are currently in great demand by companies. It also emphasized the need to promote teachers as orientators of the new ruralities at all levels of education. The need to have a training program in rural areas was also emphasized.

The need was recognized for the return strategy for migrants to also focus on returning to rural areas, while providing improvements in transportation services and access to housing.
 
An innovative idea was the possibility of paid internships in rural areas during the summer, with the idea that young people could participate in them, and the need to generate activities that promote teamwork, a fundamental tool for professional development, was also highlighted.

Finally, all stakeholders highlighted the importance of the technological development that the project partner countries have and make available to increase and improve the skills of young people. In this regard, María Isabel Doval Ruiz, representative of the University of Vigo, appreciated the progress of some of the tools that she observed during the visits of the partner countries. An example of how good practices contemplated in other countries can also be implemented and complemented with ours.