Training Tales: Experiences from the ESC Midterm Training 2026
Training Tales: Experiences from the ESC Midterm Training 2026
Last week, Silvia and I, Juli, this year's ESC volunteers, went to the ESC Midterm training, marking almost our half-time point here at IYNF. It was a very fun experience for both of us with over four days of workshops, information, and socializing.
We left on Monday of the week, although the Midterm training was, just like the On-Arrival training, in Prague. This led to a rather short travel time compared to a lot of other volunteers from organizations farther away from the capital of the Czech Republic.
After our arrival, we met for the first time in around four months with a lot of the other participants we would be spending the next few days with. We stayed in a nice hotel a bit away from the city centre with plenty of space for activities and a convenient tram stop next to it.
The remaining time on Monday was spent getting together with both the group and the trainers. We made sure we knew each other's names, chatted over dinner, and either went out or stayed inside to play games. Notably, some trainers weren't able to make it to both the On-Arrival and the Midterm, so we saw some new faces that were going to be around us for the coming days. In addition, some people's projects ended or were cancelled, which meant that, all in all, we were a few less participants than before.
The Tuesday started out, after breakfast, and a short night for some, with a reflection of what we already did in the Czech Republic. Volunteers were living all over the country and doing very different projects, from office work in the centre of Prague, such as us at IYNF, to others working in kindergartens situated in villages or small towns further away. We talked about and compared our experiences, feelings and accomplishments in smaller and then continually larger groups, which was very interesting.
Having caught up a bit, we also had the opportunity to plan self-organised workshops that we were going to execute later in the week in blocks and could work out further until then.
Following lunch break, the trainers also prepared workshops about both non-violent communication and the youth pass, a standardised format for ESC volunteers to improve their CVs by outlining the experiences and skills acquired or improved during the volunteering period.
The workshop on non-violent communication also included going into the practice of active listening and other features of communication, as well as recognizing emotion.
At the end of this eventful Tuesday and after dinner, we went on with our days similarly to the night before. We went out or played games and chatted together, generally having a fun evening.
With Wednesday starting, about half of the Midterm was over. Regardless, we carried on with a module on Czech language and culture. There we were first presented with different objects such as pictures or similar abstract things. This included a piece of wood with bark sprayed to form part of wood path markings commonly found in the Czech Republic.
We competed with the other teams to identify their connection to Czech culture before we carried on to the second part of the module - language. Here we learned and taught each other a bit of vocabulary. Our varying skills in Czech depended on our background, workplace and other accommodations.
It was fun for us in either case, especially in (purposeful) contrast to the next activity. There we had us put ourselves in uncomfortable situations outside of the hotel to then talk about managing discomfort and negative environments. We shared techniques to help us in situations where we are experiencing displeasure.
Following this, and to cheer us up a bit again, we did some fun team-building games and the workshops prepared by participants earlier the week. This was very engaging and rewarding for both the volunteers who planned them as well as those participating in the various workshops, which went from topics like nutrition to dance to mindfulness amongst plenty of others.
The final day, Thursday, was relatively short for us as we left after lunch. Beforehand, we still had a workshop about our mini projects. There was a wide variety of projects at varying stages of completion. Some planned their projects, some talked about how they were going, and others did little presentations about their already finished mini projects.
After this, we looked both to the future and back on these last days. We discussed what we would still like to do and connected with others by writing compliments for them. We also wrote emails to our future selves and, of course, gave feedback on the training.
After a very tasty lunch, some more chatting, and hanging out in the city, we all gradually went back to wherever we live - us to Prague and others on their longer transportation journey into their cities, towns, and villages.
Overall, reconnecting with other people going through similar experiences was very valuable and the training was a nice opportunity.
Berg frei,
Juli 🙂
