One step closer to a future career

The solidarity project Turda Youth Council (CTT) was carried out by the Association for Social Mobility and Democratic Education between January 2022 and January 2023 in Turda municipality, Cluj county, Romania. Several workshops on topics such as Technology, Marketing, Finance and Human Resources took place, all aiming to increase the knowledge of the young participants and bring them one step closer to their future career.

"The Turda Youth Council project was great in so many ways. However, the coolest, from my point of view, was that for the first time someone actually asked me what I wanted an activity I was involved in to look like. It was a question that surprised me tremendously. I've always been used to just being told what an activity looks like and doing what tasks are asked of me. The fact that someone asked me what I wanted an activity to look like for me, that it gave me the opportunity to coordinate it and build it according to my own opinion, increased my self-confidence a lot. I hope that at some point every young person will have the chance to go through an experience like this. 

It's a whole different thing to practise your skills in a real context, it helps you see what your limits are and how you can push them. I also enjoyed getting involved in projects run by other young people. It was important to see my peers, who are my age, involved in something they are passionate about. They passed this energy on to me and pushed me to evolve." shared Cătălina, Human Resources Officer.

"Turda Youth Council was for me a dream come true. It was very hard for me to find a clear direction in my life from a professional point of view. I felt that everyone around me was giving me very generic advice such as 'Do what you like', 'See what you are good at' or 'See something for the future'. Eventually I found my way in life and I am very fulfilled with what I am doing. So fulfilled that I wanted to create the context for other young people to find their direction. This year I have had the opportunity to get involved in activities that have given young people the chance to experiment with programming, graphic design, fundraising, personal development, coordinating volunteer teams and more. 

Activity by activity, many of the young people involved had the opportunity to see whether or not they identified with a type of task in a very practical context, which helped them to clarify what they did and did not want to do with their lives. Moreover, they did all this with a very noble goal: to practice these skills in activities they coordinated for community development. 

I am glad that I could contribute to make these good things happen in Turda and the surrounding areas. We have a lot of great young people who need support and it's a phenomenal opportunity to be able to be part of that support." said Leonardo, Project Manager.

Updated on Fimmtudagur, 19/10/2023