EU Youth Ambassadors: series of workshops at Bocholt Municipal Comprehensive School

Young people are currently training to become ambassadors for the European Union at the municipal comprehensive school. They are taking part in a simulation game.

The workshop series "EUBotschafter@school", which was successfully held at Hohe-Giethorst-Schule last school year, has been running at the municipal comprehensive school in Bocholt since the end of 2023. Class 10c will deal with aspects of the European Union a total of six times until the summer holidays. EUROPE DIRECT Bocholt has organised this series of workshops.

Two workshops have already taken place. In a first round in November, the pupils in class 10c learnt more about the institutions of the EU. The second event went into full swing: Under the guidance of youth ambassadors Timon Weyand and Julika Terpitz, the class played the game "Suity Hero". The game is about a fantasy continent that is destroyed after a war. The players are assigned to countries that lie in ruins and have to be rebuilt. The challenge is that each "country" lacks a crucial resource to be able to rebuild their country.

The participants got to know their countries and found initial indications of how they should proceed. If one country lacked gloves, for example, they had to buy them in another country. To travel to this country, they had to fill out travel applications, which were processed by the game organisers.

The pupils quickly realised the basic idea of the simulation game: it doesn't work without international cooperation. "The project has been a complete success so far", says teacher Marcel Frieling, who brought the youth ambassadors to the comprehensive school through EUROPE DIRECT Bocholt. "This is a fun way for the pupils to learn about complex political processes."

At the end of the game, one group came together to form a "state community". Just like in real life, they traded together. In addition to this co-operation, there were also discussions about travel facilitation.

Sonja Wießmeier from EUROPE DIRECT Bocholt, the local point of contact for questions and involvement relating to the European Union, welcomed the pupils at the start of the project day and presented the class with a large map of the European Union as a gift.

Four more exciting dates about the EU and its tasks await the class until the European elections in June 2024.

About the EUROPE DIRECT Bocholt

EUROPE DIRECT Bocholt is part of the mayor's office of the city of Bocholt and is the local point of contact for questions about the European Union. Its task is to provide local citizens with information, advice, help and answers to questions about Europe. In addition, EUROPE DIRECT Bocholt aims to promote European involvement and provide information on current European political events.