It is not uncommon for major tournaments to host training programmes, as Duncan Crowe, one of the main organizers of the Scottish EUDC training series, puts it. However, the effort invested in the Scottish EUDC training series has been exceptional in length and extent. Instead of being a selected set of workshops delivered directly prior to the competition, this training series has involved the production and distribution of new, live training content directly to societies across Europe. The launch of the Scottish EUDC Training Platform marks the introduction of a new pillar to the international debate education.

The Scottish EUDC Training Platform starting page – © Achte Minute

As part of the Scottish EUDC bid, CAs Olivia Sundberg Diez and Duncan Crowe committed to hosting trainings throughout Europe. Indeed, they’ve made good on their word. In addition to hosting more than 300 training and workshop sessions throughout Europe, they, in collaboration with many trainers and the Scottish EUDC Tech officer Raluca Vacaru, have launched a website hosting many of these trainings and workshops. Among many goals, the organizers hope that “these [videos] are useful particularly to societies who maybe don’t have the access to practice opportunities societies in Western Europe have.” Recognizing the value of accessing and watching debate videos in improving, the organisers eventually stumbled upon a discussion of other types of debate resources that would be helpful to debaters and societies.

The series is remarkable – after the idea was conceived by Olivia Sundberg-Diaz, the programme has been executed over the course of two years and without funding. Instead, lecturers and organizers collaborated with tournament hosts to incorporate workshops into tournament venues, or delivered workshops online using live streaming platforms.

Most workshops are delivered either in-person with activities and recorded for an online audience, or are online live lectures that feature virtual interaction (questions, feedback, participation, etc).The website includes opportunities to request training resources, request a workshop for your society, or volunteer to provide a training session. Announcements for upcoming live workshops can be found on the Scottish EUDC 2018 facebook page.

A list of ressources on the Scottish EUDC Training Platform – © Achte Minute

Duncan convened the Scottish EUDC 2017 London Training Week between the Oxford IV and Cambridge IV. That involved three days of a matter session followed by a practice round on a related motion. The first day featured Gavin O’Leary speaking on how to effectively debate politics; the next day Duncan discussing how to identify clash in debate; for the third day, EUDC champion and best speaker Bethany Garry worked with participants on how to understand and debate the Middle East.

These are among the many training sessions available on the website, which currently includes a total of 42 video resources.

The site breaks these down into three main sections: content lectures, strategy lectures, and resources on development (which includes both written resources and video resources). In addition to these categories, workshops can be filtered by method of delivery (video or written), topic, or author. 34 trainers are featured alongside seven members of the EUDC chief adjudication team (Duncan, Olivia, Dee Courtney, Daan Welling, Gigi Gil, Ilija Ivanisevic, and Yair Har-Oz). Trainers represent debate societies from Scotland, England, Ireland, Israel, Romania, Russia, Germany, and France. There are two additional contributors (Ameera Natasha Moore and Ashish Kumar).

Written workshops include a training workbook by Bethany Garry and many popular facebook notes that have been circulated in recent years, including: How to Break at an International (and break barriers): Women’s Edition, How to Break at an International, and a Guide for Chief Adjudicators.

anonymous/lok.

Mittwochs-Feature: Every Wednesday the Mittwochs-Feature features an idea, interview or book regarding debate – usually in German, sometimes in English, sometimes both. If you would like to do a feature regarding a certain topic please mail us your idea to team [at] achteminute [dot] de.