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At the end of March six Swedish youths together with their teacher and a PIPE co-ordinator were visiting Järva County in Estonia. Most of the time the youths were gathered in Türi that is the second largest town in Järva County. The youths were hosted by the "PIPE-youths" in Estonia. Many of the Swedes had already come into contact with the Estonians via e-mail, so it didn't take much time to get to know each other. The programme was very varied and diversified - meetings at the Town Council and at the Swedish Embassy, excursions in Türi and Tallinn, work-shops, study visits to the Estonian Parliament and to the different enterprises, visiting some museums in the environs of Türi and also some common parties and dinners.
One of the most unusual activities for Swedish students was the Job Shadow Day in the local enterprises. All the Swedish youths together with their Estonian hosts spent half a day at different workplaces. They shadowed the reporters in local newspaper and radio, the youth policeman at the police station, the head of budget department of the town authorities, the head of Väätsa landfill and the printer in publishing company. During the four hours they had a task to found out main skills and needful knowledge for those jobs, to interview the workers and to discuss and make conclusions of what they had experienced during the job shadow day.
At the end of the day we had a workshop, where students talked about their impressions, discussed the differences and opportunities of the jobs they had seen during the day.
Some of the students were more satisfied than others. At some enterprises the workers had been very busy and didn't find enough time to spend with the youths. And in some cases the youths realised that they would never like to do that kind of work as they did at some enterprises. Swedish students thought it would be a good idea to introduce the project and organise job shadow day in their home community next school year.
Last day the students had to fill in an evaluation sheet to give some feedback about the exchange. The youths found out as most interesting getting the new experiences and changed valuations and practising English. There were many Swedish youths that said that they had realised during the exchange that there were so many things in Sweden they would appreciate much more when they'll be back at home but at the same time there was a lot to learn from Estonian youths as well. The youths considered themselves as more and more broad-minded and mentioned that the exchange would help them to understand a bit better the aim and the vision of the whole PIPE project.
Many of the Swedish students said that they would like to come back to Estonia, and especially to the beautiful capital Tallinn. And many Estonians are excited and eager to come and visit Västra Götaland in September.
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