Last Monday, April 5, the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety with YOURS – Youth for Road Safety and iRAP – International Road Assessment Programme launched the fourth and last session of the youth stars programme. The sessions ran for four weeks every Monday and were led by Master Trainers from all over the world who were recruited by YOURS.
The Master Trainers
Five global master trainers were recruited by YOURS in 2019. These master trainers were trained on the principles of the Star Rating for Schools (SR4S) methodology pioneered by iRAP. As a result of the program, the master trainers would be capable and qualified to conduct star ratings for schools and universities and train other young people on the SR4S methodology.
Master trainers Daniel Cano from Colombia, Minh Vo from Vietnam, Alex Ayub from Kenya, and Shantel Jacobs from Belize are leading the Youth Stars Programme – a four-week session for members of the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety that trains them to understand, use, and apply the SR4S methodology and its tools to rate school zones in their areas and communities.
The Youth Stars Programme
The first session of the Youth Stars Programme started on Monday, March 15. Each week, a different topic was covered by the master trainers. The first session was an introduction to the SR4S methodology, the second was on project structure, the third was on data collection, and the fourth one was about different road assessment cases and frequently asked questions about the programme.
During the last session, Master Trainers Minh and Alex gave in-depth discussions on different road attributes and how to best code them. Attributes speed were highlighted as an important factor in coding streets. During her talk, Minh pointed out that operating speed and speed limit were two completely different things. She explained that operating speed is the actual speed vehicles drive on the road while the speed limit is the maximum speed a vehicle can go while on the roads.
Alex’s discussion focused more on road infrastructure and gave tips on how to identify poor roads from good ones with the help of the SR4S application. Alex also talked about the importance of identifying formal and informal structures as well as the apt coding classification for the star rating.
To end the session, iRAP Global Program Coordinator Rafaela Machado thanked the members for joining the Youth Stars Programme.
“Just wanted to congratulate everyone for attending the sessions, for the brilliant training sessions delivered by the master trainers, I’m super proud! I think this network your building is very powerful and you should take advantage of that and, of course, you know where to find iRAP and keep in touch and keep in contact with the Master Trainers.” – Rafaela Machado
The participants of the Youth Stars Programme will receive certification for completing the programme. They also have the option to do create star rating projects that will be overseen by the Master Trainers.