Taking one more step: Training of Trainers for Education in Emergencies in Ukraine

We continue the Education in Emergencies Professional Development Programme (EIE PDP) in Ukraine. The programme aims to support the Education Cluster in Ukraine during the current crisis. It started with the Reflect and Learn workshop in August in Kyiv which provided a safe learning space for 25 participants to share challenges, reflect on experiences, and identify areas of learning. Following up on the workshop, the participants have now completed Module 1 ‘Foundational Concepts & Frameworks of EiE’ of the self-passed online learning and have participated in online learning sessions facilitated by our EiE consultant in Ukraine.

The online course provided an introduction to the concept of EiE, general principles and approaches to analysing barriers to education in times of crisis, INEE minimum standards of education, and opportunities provided by an integrated approach to support the education system. The cases – fictional and real – demonstrate how EiE works in different contexts.

Continuing the programme, last week we organised the 4-day in-person Training of Trainers (ToT). This part of the EiE PDP is focused on preparing educators for further delivery of Education in Emergencies Fundamentals Trainings across the country to support more practitioners.

Since the war-related emergency is sudden and challenging for organisations, the programme not only allows for an understanding of the EiE principles but also immediate contextualisation and transfer to real-world conditions. This will allow local organisations to improve the quality of their services and, in the future, to share their experience with other professionals around the world.

The in-person ToT training covered topics such as training excellence, training design, and delivery practices. It was an important opportunity for education practitioners to meet and discuss the contextualisation and methodology of the programme to meet the specific needs in Ukraine based on Education Cluster insights and experience.

Nadiia highlights:

– The insights that emerge during offline training and discussion of disputable situations are invaluable. It allows us to maximise the adaptation of existing EiE experience to Ukrainian realities and even develop our own EiE training methodology. The war in Ukraine is large-scale, and the obstacles and consequences for education are extremely significant. An attempt to contextualise EiE approaches, taking into account the participants’ own experience, allowed us to look systematically at the problems faced by Ukrainian education and to find ways to address the needs.

The participants found the in-person training “productive, rich, and constructive”, with one of them sharing their feedback: « A productive working environment in which I was able to develop both my facilitation skills and knowledge of education in emergencies ». Most of the educators who took part in the training of trainers expressed their readiness to cascade the programme in the regions and deliver contextualised Education in Emergencies trainings for the Education Cluster partners in the new year.

To support more educators in Ukraine, we translated Module 1 Foundational Concepts and Frameworks and Conflict Sensitive Education in Emergencies courses into Ukrainian. Both are now available for free on Kaya:

• Освіта в надзвичайних ситуаціях з урахуванням конфлікту

• Освіта в надзвичайних ситуаціях

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