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Youth leaders from across Europe learned important leadership skills and forged new, strong relationships at UNI Europa Youth summer school.

Through role playing and group discussions, more than 20 students representing countries from Finland to Italy have spent the past few days learning new communication and negotiation techniques.

"The school is a great way for young people to improve their ability to lead their unions back home," said Colin Medland, Head of UNI Youth. "So far it's been a huge success."

The main goal of the program is to send students away feeling confident they have the basic skills to affect change back in their home countries.

"It's really listening skills," said Nick Nicholls, the program's tutor. "How to negotiate effectively, when should you withdraw from a meeting, how to withdraw from a meeting, the poker face — that's the real essence behind it."

Nick stressed the importance of proper negotiation training for union leaders.

"Negotiation is such an important part of unionism," he said. "If representatives get it wrong, people can really suffer for it."

But learning new skills isn't the only reason these members of UNI Europa Youth travelled to Italy for the conference. Spending time with this diverse group allowed summer school attendees to hear about the struggles and successes of unions across Europe.

"They can hear about what problems people have faced in other countries and how they dealt with them," said Keith Pollard, President of UNI Youth. "Hopefully they can take these solutions and apply them to similar problems back in their home countries."

Whether relaxing by the pool or sharing some food and drinks, students have had ample opportunity to get to know each other and learn about their unions' similarities.

Boerge Aanesen is the youth advisor for his trade union in Fellesforbundet, Norway. For him, one of the most important benefits he took away from the school is the relationships built with trade unionists.

"It will help a lot to understand, to show solidarity out of the borders," he said. "You build relationships internationally, and that's the beauty of it."