Upon the request of the Malta Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society (MFWS), and within the framework of its “P.O.P-up: Promote Online Protection" project, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) will deliver a Training of Trainers (ToT) on Child Online Protection to psycho-social teams of all Maltese colleges nationally. This initiative will train circa. 110 participants and is conducted in coordination with the Maltese Ministry for Education and all heads of Colleges. The national scale-up of the Training of Trainer follows up on the successful roll-out of the pilot project that trained the psycho-social team of two colleges in Malta back in December 2022.
The training sets to achieve two main goals:
- To create awareness among educators on the protection and rights of children online and related challenges;
- To provide the necessary skills to discuss these issues at school, train other staff of the education system, and overall create a safer online experience for children.
The training of trainer certification scheme will run from June to July 2023 and consists of 3 main phases, with the core of the training delivered onsite from 19th June to 23rd June 2023.
The three phases of the certification scheme are as follow:
- Online self-paced training: By completing the online courses, counsellors and psychotherapists will grasp the risks and challenges children and adolescents may encounter online. They will also learn what they can do within their job to mitigate these risks, in particular those associated with Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (OCSEA), provide assistance for children and teens, and create a safer online experience. Overall, the online self-paced training will enable participants to have the same knowledge basis needed for the onsite training. The online self-paced training for academic and non-academic staff is composed of two courses
- Onsite Training of Trainers (ToT): The onsite training of trainer contain a series of activities and instructions on effectively delivering the information gained from the online self-paced training to train professionals in the academic sector. It will aim to provide social workers with a robust knowledge base to assist them in confronting relevant challenges; developing their knowledge of the child online protection content and demonstrating how they can strategically address these challenges.
- Final assignment & assessment: After completing the ToT, in order to receive a trainer certificate, participants will complete a final assignment that will aim to validate the knowledge acquired during the training and participants' ability to deliver COP training in their local contexts.
By the end of the training, participants will not only be familiar with the COP tools and guidelines for Educators but will also be equipped to plan and deliver training sessions on COP using appropriate resources and pedagogical methods. Those who pass all the program's stages receive the training of trainer certificate and become an official UN ITU Trainer. Through targeted capacity development, local educators will be empowered to disseminate newly acquired knowledge to their local communities and become changemakers.
