• School Leadership Days
  • 11 September 2008
  • 13 September 2007
  • 14 September 2006
  • 14 September 2005
• Working With A Charity
  • The Second Rank Fellowship Charities Evening
  • Charities Evening Report 2006
    • Attending Charities
    • Photos
• Recent CAP Reports
  • Ross Jenkins
  • Hannah Partridge
  • Farzin Mirshahi
  • Archie Wardlaw
  • Robert Sharpley
  • Sarah Potts at the Ellesmere Youth Project
  • Daniella Smith at All Saints Normanton Youth Project
  • Josh Williams at the Hope Family Centre
• Earlier CAP Reports

Home › School Fellows › Recent CAP Reports › Duncan Darroch-Thompson

Duncan Darroch-Thompson - The Princes Trust Scotland

The Task: Duncan was expected to participate in the Give Me 5 Youth Exchange in Italy and The World Congress Action project in Durness, North West Sutherland.

These activities would provide the platform for Duncan to gain knowledge of other countries and greater understanding of the young people taking part. It was also intended that Duncan use his language skills in a very practical way.

Combined with the above, it was envisaged Duncan would take on more responsibility for the day to day management of the youth group while in Italy and perform an interpretation role with participants from the World Youth Congress.

Duncan’s Report:

1. Aims and Expectations

By participating in this Youth Exchange again I aimed to further my knowledge of the countries taking part, be it the culture, the people, the music or other aspects, as last year, but this year to follow them up by visiting the countries after the exchange. I also aimed to learn some more of the various languages, as language is something I am extremely interested in.

I expected to play a full part in managing a large group of foreign young people and providing them with an opportunity to get to know each other and to integrate easily and readily. I expected to be the link between them and the older leaders.

2. Have I met my aims, and how?

I certainly met my aims. On a language front I picked up Swedish, Latvian and Norwegian on a fundamental level so I could have a basic conversation with the people in their native language. As a result of the trip I am going out to Latvia and Norway to meet up with people I met on the exchange. I could already speak Italian so I did not have to learn that while I was there. In the 2004 exchange I learnt a lot about Latvia and Sweden so this time I made a conscious effort to learn about Norway. I chatted to Kenti, one of the Norwegian leaders, as well as the other members of the Norwegian group, at great length about life in Norway and the system of schooling they have, as well as discussing whether the EU is a good thing or not.

3. Achievements

I feel that the achievements mentioned in 2. above are far more than I hoped for. I did not expect to meet such a diverse group of people and manage to get on with all of them. My Italian also improved a huge amount. I have certainly improved my people skills and my skills as a leader, which leads me on to section 4:

4. How have my leadership skills developed?

I think that I am more confident as a leader now, as I have had to impose myself as a leader and as a friend in a short space of time. There were times when a firm hand was needed in organizing things and people, but other times I blended in as one of the group very successfully and I am pleased that I managed to do that.

I would like to think that my personal management skills have improved too. It was an effort at first to approach groups from one country and chat to them, but that became much easier, and they developed a respect for me as a friend and as a leader.

5. Conclusion

I would like to offer my thanks to the Rank Foundation and to the Prince’s Trust for once again allowing me to do such worthwhile and enjoyable work experience. The people I have met over the last two years have been both varied and interesting, and I very much hope to participate in the final leg of the exchange in Norway next year.