From May 31 to June 12, a new internship activity was carried out by students from a professional school in Bulgaria, who spent two weeks in Vilanova i la Geltrú (Barcelona) to learn new hairdressing techniques and products.
In the ‘Natural and Bio-friendly Techniques and Products in Hairdressing’ activity, students from the Evridika school, in the small town of Kardzhali (Bulgaria), have participated in a program of activities in which they have dedicated 7 mornings to learning about new hairdressing techniques. cut and collect hair, dye and fade with all the colors of the summer season, as well as new hair care products.
The group has been made up of 19 people, 14 adolescent students in their first and second cycles of hairdressing and cosmetics, aged 14 to 19 (5 girls and 9 boys), 2 teachers, the director of the center and 2 young people who have carried out the tasks of translators (from English to Bulgarian). The group has carried out their internships over 2 weeks, 7 mornings in total, at the Llongueras Hairdressing Academy, a school with a long history in the city.
Once the results of the evaluation forms have been analyzed, we can affirm that the entire group has enjoyed the experience and highly values both the space in which they stayed and the academy where they have learned new hairdressing techniques, enjoying an exchange experience which has allowed them to develop skills, despite the lack of knowledge of English by most of the group and, in some cases, even of Bulgarian, for being part of a cultural minority, which entails specific challenges, not only of communication, but also training and social participation.
To promote communication, group cohesion and teamwork, before the practices we have carried out activities and games, and, to give value to the experiences and learning of the day, before dinner, we have carried out a brief session of reflection, individually and in groups. These processes are completely complementary to each other and to the internships and help the group to understand first-hand the benefits of non-formal training, both in terms of developing skills, attitudes and interests, as well as to assume something more initiative and responsibility in their own learning. One afternoon, to promote communication in the group, we held a workshop dedicated to practicing non-violent communication.
According to the evaluation forms that the students completed on the last day, the program served them for the 3 objectives that we had set ourselves, to 1) gain a new understanding and new perspectives on hairdressing and the cosmetic sector (with an excellent note of 9.58 out of 10); 2) to improve the skills to become professionals through practice, teamwork and reflection (with a score of 8.2 out of 10); 3) to reinforce interest in continuing their studies in the sector (with a score of 8.1 out of 10).
The group, staying at the Hotel César in the Baixamar neighborhood of the capital of Garraf, was able to enjoy a privileged environment, very close to the Ribes Roges beach, which we have taken advantage of to show them the sea front and play games in the beach.
The group dedicated a whole day to visiting Barcelona, another afternoon to visit Parc Güell, one morning they visited Sitges, 7 km from Vilanova y la Geltrú, and, the last two days, once the internship program had finished, they enjoyed a week of rest and beach in Segur de Calafell.
We want to thank the school for its trust in the FCV, as well as in the Llongueras Academy, which has designed a training program adapted to the group and communication challenges, making an effort to share their knowledge in a very limited time.
We take this opportunity to extend our thanks to the 3 people, part of the FCV team, who have voluntarily collaborated in the activity: Andrés and Zuhair, to carry out a guided tour and accompany the group through Barcelona and Sitges, and to Zaklina, facilitator of the workshop on non-violent communication.
The activity is the result of the collaboration agreement between the FCV, the Evridika School and the Center for European Initiatives ‘Stara Zagora’. This is the 5th activity that the FCV has organized in the last 20 months in collaboration with a school in the Plovdiv region (Bulgaria) and with the support of the Erasmus+ program of the European Commission and the Bulgarian National Agency.
Thank you very much to all!
Previous activities have been dedicated to internships in the sectors of tourism, ecological agriculture, business management and administration, and winemaking. Given the good results and the satisfaction of both the students and the schools, we hope to collaborate next year with other vocational training schools that want to develop their internships in Catalonia.
