Crew Beyond Borders

Adventure-Based Learning Methods for Youth Work

AN OVERVIEW

Crew Beyond Borders – Adventure-Based Learning Methods for Youth Work is an international training course held aboard the Helena, a sailing boat equipped for non-formal education, navigating the waters of the Mediterranean.
Framed within the Erasmus+ Programme and aimed at youth workers, the project explores and promotes adventure-based learning as a powerful and innovative methodology in the field of European youth work.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

Its main goal is to develop soft skills and provide new educational tools by immersing participants in an intensive, hands-on experience where sailing, cooperation, physical challenge, and shared responsibility become drivers of personal and professional growth. The unique setting of the sailboat enables participants to engage in a non-traditional learning environment, fostering reflection on leadership, communication, sustainability, and intercultural understanding.

Objective 1: To critically explore and validate adventure-based learning as a transformative pedagogical approach within non-formal youth work.

To deepen the participants’ understanding of experiential education theory, with a specific focus on adventure-based learning and its historical and epistemological underpinnings.
To analyse the pedagogical potential of risk, physical challenge, and uncertainty in fostering reflective learning and identity development.
To co-create a shared educational framework that integrates adventure-based learning into broader youth work strategies across diverse socio-cultural contexts.

Objective 2: To enhance the personal and professional competences of youth workers by embedding experiential and embodied learning practices into their educational methodologies.

To facilitate critical self-reflection on the educator’s role, positionality, and relational dynamics within participatory and immersive learning environments.
To develop key transversal competences—such as adaptive leadership, emotional intelligence, and resilience—through embodied practice and group-based challenges.
To strengthen participants’ capacity to design, facilitate and assess competence-based learning pathways grounded in real-life, experiential processes.

Objective 3: To foster intercultural learning, global citizenship, and transnational cooperation by creating a mobile and situated educational space that transcends traditional institutional boundaries.

To activate meaningful intercultural dialogue through shared physical experiences, narrative practices, and collaborative problem-solving at sea.
To position the sailing journey as a metaphor and method for rethinking educational spaces as fluid, horizontal, and co-created.
To promote sustainable cross-border cooperation among youth organisations through the development of common pedagogical values, mutual recognition of competences, and long-term project planning.

OUTPUT

From a knowledge perspective, participants will develop a solid conceptual understanding of adventure-based learning within the broader field of experiential and non-formal education. They will be introduced to the pedagogical roots of this methodology, its applications in diverse youth work settings, and its connections to transformative learning theories.
In terms of skills, the project focuses on promoting transversal and pedagogical skills essential for contemporary youth work. These include the ability to facilitate group processes in unconventional contexts, design experiential learning activities with clear educational outcomes, manage risk and emotional safety, and lead structured reflection and debriefing sessions.
Regarding attitudes, the immersive and collective nature of life on board is designed to encourage openness, humility, and an ethic of care. Participants are invited to re-negotiate their roles not only as educators but also as learners and co-creators of the experience. Attitudes of curiosity, empathy, intercultural sensitivity, and environmental awareness are intentionally cultivated throughout the journey, creating a safe but challenging space for inner and relational development.
Finally, the behaviours developed during the course are expected to extend beyond the project itself. Participants will practice responsibility, initiative, and sustained engagement in collective tasks such as navigation, cooking, cleaning, and facilitating onboard activities. These behaviours—anchored in shared living, mutual trust, and real-time feedback—support the internalisation of collaborative practices that can be transferred to the participants’ everyday work with young people, especially in contexts where traditional education fails to engage or empower.

Time

July 2026 - March 2027
8 Months

Where

Helsinki, Finlandia

Beneficiaries

Young people aged between 18 and 30, Youth workers and trainers.

funding

KA150-YOU – Erasmus accreditation in youth: 2024-1-IT03-KA150-YOU-000280449

Partners

Unglingasmiðjur Stígur og Tröð - Youth Centre Villa Elba - Potrafimy - InterMediaKT - BokraSawa - Yupi