This activity invites you to look back on your journey to becoming a trainer and reflect on the key milestones that have shaped your development.
Becoming a trainer is often not a linear process. It is influenced by important people, meaningful experiences, organisations, and learning moments that contribute to how you design, facilitate, and understand learning today.
By exploring your pathway, you can become more aware of what has influenced your trainer identity, how your competencies have developed over time, and what continues to shape your learning.
By completing this activity, you will be able to:
- Reflect on important milestones that influenced your development as a trainer;
- Identify key people, events, and organisations that shaped your learning;
- Become aware of how you have developed your competencies over time;
- Share and compare your pathway with other trainers.
Step 1
Take a large sheet of paper and some pens, pencils, or colours. You may also use materials from your surroundings (e.g., stones) to create a more visual representation.
Look back at your journey of becoming a trainer. Think about significant moments that influenced your development. These may include:
- People who inspired or challenged you;
- Events, trainings, or experiences that shaped your approach;
- Organisations or communities that supported your growth
- Turning points that changed your direction or understanding
Create a visual representation of your pathway using a metaphor, such as a road, river, or landscape. Highlight the milestones that had the most impact on your development as a trainer.
Step 2
In small groups of peer trainers, share your pathways with each other. You can choose how much you want to share.
While listening to each other, explore:
- What types of milestones appear in your journeys? What patterns can you spot behind the obvious facts?
- What has influenced your learning the most?
- How are your pathways similar or different? What do you notice about how trainers develop their competencies over time?
Reflect together on what these insights mean for your ongoing development as a trainer. Go to the badge and submit evidence from your reflection on trainer pathways.
The Awero organisation created this educational resource and activity for the Erasmus+ Accreditation training for trainers.
This activity supports trainers’ competence development in the Learning to learn area. Activity content and badge-issuing criteria aligned with the European Training Strategy (ETS) competence model for trainers working internationally. In particular:
- Assessing one’s own learning achievements and competencies;
- Undergoing personal/ professional development through feedback.
