Background

I was invited, as Treasurer of Ynternet.org, a Swiss foundation based at HES SO, University of Applied Sciences in Geneva, Switzerland to participate in this project.

I flew with Ms Afonso, a trainer with Ynternet.org on Sunday, September 12th from Geneva to Zurich and then to Malta.

Set up, location, facilities

The accommodation at the University of Malta in Lija, Malta was excellent and quiet. The conference room was well set-up with internet access, air conditioning, white boards and microphones. Some presentations from Slovenia and Switzerland were online.

The other participants were four people from Berlin, Germany and  four from Malta (another participant from Malta did not attend often because of other commitments). Some of these participants worked with elderly people and so the course and activities were well suited to their work. The two Maltese lady facilitators who arranged our stay were well organised, efficient and very committed.

Training sessions and activities

In my opinion, the training sessions were highly interactive, interesting and relevant. We as a group, created, shared and updated 2 documents on Google Docs to record our experiences.

The course was well-paced with just the right amount of material to make notes, and free time to discuss with the other participants. The group interacted well with good cooperation and collaboration. As a group, we travelled by minivan to Valletta, the capital, Mdina, the former capital and to a fishing village in the south east. We dined in excellent restaurants each evening.

To improve for future projects

The activities were in English and 2 participants either had a poor command of the language or no knowledge at all. In order to participate and interact with other project members a good knowledge (eg level B2) is necessary.

On Wednesday morning we visited Esplora, a science museum in Valletta. The film projected was very beautiful but had little intellectual content. The exhibits were designed to interest children in a career in science and thus not so relevant to adults.

Some of the speakers had a big problem with “Ahs”, “Ums” and “Ers”. This impeded their ability to transmit their message.

Robert O Riordan, ambassador from Ynternet.org foundation