This autumn the analysis of the semi-structured interviews which is part of PR1 – Building teaching methodology in EI, training materials, and instructions, which will support the learning process and training providers in VET centers, social support centers, social enterprises, business support organizations, or other, in the process of organization and conduction of training – has finally been concluded. The interviews, based on guidelines for applying structured and semi-structured interviews and questionnaires, took place during the summer months and were aimed at identifying training contexts, needs and trainee’s groups according to the opinions of trainers and trainees in each of the four partner countries.
All project partners contacted respondents from VET centers and universities: on the one hand experts having profound competence and expertise in providing training courses to different trainees (long-term unemployed, emigrants, employees, students, and trainers) and on the other hand trainees (long-term unemployed, emigrants, employees, students, and trainers). The five project partners conducted 103 interviews in total – 32 tutors and experts were interviewed with a questionnaire designed for trainers, and 71 potential trainees were interviewed with the form for the trainees.
The results of the semi-structured interviews showed that both trainers and trainees need more training in recognizing emotions, as well as in using and labeling emotions, emotional regulation, and training on EI as a whole. Thanks to these results the consortium has now the information to create a training course which contains a curriculum, a step-by-step educational procedure, and various training materials. In fact, during the next months the consortium will focus, under the guidance of the Foundation for Developing Emotional Intelligence (Bulgaria), on the development of those. The developed materials, which will be applicable to all kinds of training courses, will be tested during the training course in Sofia organized by the Foundation for Developing Emotional Intelligence (Bulgaria) at the end of February 2023. The training course will be attended by experts from each partner country, who will be invited to give their feedback on the adaptability and application of the developed materials.
During this month the consortium has also started to work on PR2, under the guidance of Univerzita Mateja Bela v Banskej Bystrici (Slovakia). This project result is an interactive learning board game, which will not only facilitate the educational process in the classroom, but which can also be applied in lifelong learning and in an informal environment, thus achieving long-term learning impacts in involved trainees. The purpose of the game is to assist both trainers and trainees in the EI training process. The idea behind its creation is on the one hand its application during training and on the other hand to assist trainers and trainees in learning and developing EI (emotional intelligence) skills once the training is completed.
We will update you soon with the next steps!