International Center for Development of Education and Training
ICDET (International Center for Development of Education and Training) is one of the most popular and most active youth organizations from Bulgaria in the field of promoting European values through local projects and participation in projects abroad. All of our members have experience in working on projects and their organization allows the creation of a perfectly balanced team. Our goal is to inspire and help positive social and economic changes, and dedicate our time to ensure the effective implementation of these ideas. We are consistent in our organizational values: promoting non-formal education and training of young people through intercultural training and activities, the encouragement of the youth exchanges and volunteering at national, European and international level, development of consciousness of European citizenship through programs and projects designed for young people. Оur main aims – to inform and to improve youngsters’ skills and knowledge about their opportunities.
ICDET has been working in mobility programs since 2013. With more than three years of experience and more than 200 participants hosted and sent, ICDET is one of the largest hosting organizations for European Projects in Bulgaria. We are based in Sofia – the capital of
Bulgaria.
In Bulgaria, we can organize mobilities in Sofia, Plovdiv, Velingrad, Bansko, Borovets, Burgas, Varna, seaside resorts like Sunny Beach, Ravda, Nessebar, etc. In other countries, we work in cooperation with experienced companies, schools, universities, training centers, public organizations and job offices all around Europe, which are available to organize with us mobilities, chosen by our participants. ICDET is an open door for new and original projects and/or mobility. It gives the opportunity for all participants to make their ideas and dreams come true and to feel that they have great support in doing it.
We look to the mobility in an innovative way and seek a serious but entertaining way the participants’ commitment to inherent principles of the Erasmus + Programme. During participants’ stay, the staff for sure will seek to integrate them in the Bulgarian culture offering full availability in order to adjust them in the social and professional contexts.
The aims of ICDET are to promote the personal development and the democratic citizenship, volunteering and youth mobility; to know better the sport and healthy lifestyle; to support the development of the abilities and potential of young people from different social and ethnic groups, and young people with disabilities and this aim is realized through our educational, recreational and cultural activities. Our main purpose is to support people with different skills, education, age, gender, and needs, in developing individually. We aim also to support the users in the discovery and expression of their talents and then implement the initiatives and projects aimed at minors, immigrants, seniors and groups of people with special needs and to promote their socialization.
Our team members have worked and participated in a lot of international projects informally since 2001. Since 2012 we have worked hard on projects related to the activities of the association for the past 5 years and, which was officially registered in 2015. Several of our members have participated in EVS projects and have the clear idea of all the positive impacts of this activity. All of us have the skills and the competencies in working with young people, we are also willing to work with EVS in this period. We have sent over 200 young people in numerous projects under the program “Erasmus +”, which took place in Spain, Macedonia, Turkey, Romania, Latvia, Estonia, UK, Cyprus, Italy, Portugal, Malta, Palma de Mallorca, Lithuania, Tunisia, Greece, Indonesia, etc. We have the forthcoming projects in Kenya and Dominican Republic also under the KA2 part of the programme. All of these projects are in the area of the human and women rights, migration, violence, education, recycling, sport and healthy life, globalization and many other topics. Under the “Youth in action” programme we have made projects in FYROM, Serbia, Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia in the area of Education, Culture, Sport, Environment, Social inclusion, Social Media etc. Our organization works on new vocational education and training projects as a practice and practical training/work. All vocational schools provide their students with adequate conditions and premises for implementation of the practical training segment of their educational activities. This is exactly what our projects provide. The participating students in this projects have the chance to be part of an international mobility and obtain the necessarily practical skills as well as experience in the area they are studying. During their mobility abroad, considering that it is expected most of them to be minors, several support staff will be present with them.
During its activity, ICDET has implemented many projects with the participation of pupils of technical and vocational schools. They also had the pleasure of working with instructors and employees of local Training Centers for Teachers. Being a foreign partner, their task is to prepare an appropriate program and provide appropriate, adjusted to the needs of the beneficiaries of internships. Their goal is to place students in real working conditions as they cooperate with smaller and larger companies, companies and consortia that can provide beneficiaries with maximum conditions for their professional development. Their goal is to organize practices, so the young people can gain new experience not only practical but also to improve their language skills. The companies where they place trainees have a great culture and organization of work are firmly rooted in the Bulgarian market, they cooperate with foreign partners, so they can maximize their potential and above all, offer the trainees excellent conditions for professional and language development. The students receive certificates at the end of practice that confirm their gained skills. Due to many years of experience in organizing practice for students of technical and vocational schools ICDET can prepare suitable internship programs. In the course of practice, the students will learn the exact nature of their field of work. The organization focuses on professional development but also the personal one. Beneficiaries have the chance to broaden their horizons, meet peers from other European Union countries, practice language skills and interpersonal skills. ICDET was not only focused on the mobility of students in the last two years, the association also has implemented many projects of strategic partnerships aimed at implementation of new educational solutions (for example e-learning) in the area of vocational training. Seeing the enormous need for change in the education market, ICDET engages itself in strategic projects that emphasize development and introduce significant changes in the European Education Market.
ICDET implements project “DEVELOPMENT OF CAPACITIES FOR WORK WITH (I)MIGRANTS” under the Key Action 2 Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices.The partners were from MACEDONIA, INDONESIA, BULGARIA, and GERMANY. The final product of the project was the creation of a migration guide with information provided about the situation with the migrants, statistics, facts, regulations and laws, etc. in the partner’s countries. You can find the guide here: https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/d46909_d38216c08a174add988adda890b85106.pdf Also, the pages created for the project are: https://www.migrationportal.eu and https://www.facebook.com/cbydcwm
The whole world is affected by migration, and especially young people, who are one of the most mobile groups and the ones who determine how the future world will look like. For this it’s important that youth workers that are working with young people would be aware of the causes, opportunities and consequences of (i)migration and could support both – young emigrants and immigrants by creating opportunities, fighting discrimination and providing the support these young people need. Youth unemployment forces young people to move out of their country, and in a new country, they often face social exclusion and discrimination as immigrants. They lack support in their country of origin from youth workers (who could advise them on different opportunities about mobility) and they lack support in their country of destination where youth organizations should be able to include them.
As a result of our long-term partnership with Sofia Municipality, we are also a partner of KA3 project “BE PART OF EUROPE” which was held in Cagliari, Italy. The project stems from the need to support young people in creating a political consciousness, to encourage the rapprochement and reconciliation of youth to Politics, the institutions and policy makers. It will be organized as a transnational meeting where the young Italians and Bulgarians, together with policy makers in both countries, will discuss how, within their own countries, youth policies are dealt with and what are the best practices at European level, to promote the emergence of a structured dialogue and be able to contribute to the development of European youth policy. The methodology used for the week includes: the OST, roundtables, Metaplan, workshops.
All of the sent participants by our organization are perfectly prepared and highly motivated in the topic of the project which they participate in. The selection process of the participants from our part side is well planned in time and we are always ready with the groups earlier than necessary with the intention to have a good organization between us and our partners. We have been actively involved in all stages of youth exchanges and training courses: planning, defining roles and responsibilities of project partners, meetings, preparation, logistics, communication between all partners involved, arranging project time tables, as well as promotion of projects and dissemination of their results through our internet pages and by organizing informative sessions for the local youth for better visibility. We will assist with every step of this project – planning, defining roles and responsibilities, meetings, preparation, analysis, communicate the project itself, as well as it follows up. We will share and advertise this project in the local Medias, in our website and blog and the social channels
like Facebook and Twitter. We will publish photos, videos, interviews and etc. After the end of the project, we will organize some sessions with local youth to ensure further dissemination and visibility of the project.
ICDET is also accredited EVS sending, hosting and coordinating organization. Our first EVSes were working on our web portal called “Possibilities for Bulgarian youth in Bulgaria, Europe and world. The portal is still active and we continue publish information about all the opportunities which we find. Here is the fb page of the portal: https://www.facebook.com/pbybew
We are also having some short-term EVS-es who are working on our other projects and in February 2018 we are waiting for our new long-term EVS-es who will continue the work on our E+Media4YOUth project (https://www.facebook.com/emedia4youth)
ICDETv – https://www.facebook.com/icdetv
ICDET radio – https://www.facebook.com/radioeplusbg
Youth VibE+s magazine – https://www.facebook.com/youthvibesmagazine
Contact
Address: 1592, Sofia, Bulgaria, 57 gen. Stoyan Stoyanov str.
E-mail: icdetbg@gmail.com
Phone: +359 878 427 003