Two of the three municipalities are preparing for Future Workshops that are taking place in April. And tomorrow there is going to be a inspiration lecture in Tranemo, held by Anders Haglund who is very popular especially among the youths. Hopefully he will manage to bring a lot of motivation and self-confidence that will be needed among the PIPE youths when they meet the politicians etc at the FutureWorkshop. Last week there were 6 youths together with 2 teachers visiting Rovaniemi. The spontaneous impressions were very positive. But we have also handed out the evaluation sheets that will be summarised, and the youths have also written the logbook that we would like to evaluate. We think that the evaluation of exchanges is almost as important as the exchange itself. It’s important to find a connection between the aim and purpose of the project and the exchange activities. Another interesting topic is to find out about the changes of youths’ attitudes and knowledge of other countries. We will use this kind of questionnaire in our next exchange that takes place next week in Estonia. I can just name some of the highlights of the programme in Estonia like visiting the Estonian Parliament, Job shadow days at enterprises, dinner at Estonian TV tower. But it is not just fun and leisure. The youths have been working on their “hometask” that they are going to present in Estonia. They will present the region, the municipalities, Young Enterprises in Sweden and in their schools and many other topics connected to YE. We have also handed out some general information about Estonia. That can make them a bit more familiar with the situation when they are landing in Tallinn. I am really glad and proud of showing my country for some of the PIPE youths in Västra Götaland. Last but not the least I would like to thank Marika from Estonia who has done a really great job with planning the exchange!

by Keili Jögeva Saluveer, regional co-ordinator