BirdLife Malta members have attended a training session in the UK hosted by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds to learn how to introduce children and young people to wildlife in an engaging way.

The week-long training session, co-ordinated by BirdLife Malta’s education initiative Lifelong Learning through Nature, brought together youth leaders from Malta, Ireland, Poland and the UK. The group also developed skills in how to manage challenging behaviour and evaluate training successfully.

Malta is leading the way in training youth leaders to get children outdoors

Education manager Hannah Chisholm said the project provided BirdLife Malta and other organisations with the opportunity to learn from the experience of others, to develop international collaboration, and to develop the skill set of those involved.

“I am proud that Malta is leading the way not only in training youth leaders to get children outdoors more, but also to provide opportunities for other countries to do the same.”

The Erasmus+ funded Lifelong Learning through Nature project, which was launched in 2014, will run until 2017.

The project aims to inspire those aged between five and 21 to take an active role by promoting the positive effects of outdoor learning.