Qualified Youth Worker for Europe Erasmus Project

Project Title

Qualified Youth Worker for Europe

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Recognition (non-formal and informal learning/credits); Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment; Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy)

Project Summary

The aim of the project “Qualified Youth Workers for Europe” is to explain the complex theme of recognition and transparency of competences of Youth Worker in an understandable way. Furthermore it will show possibilities how to recognize these competencies. Therefore a guide will be published in English as well as in German. The project contributes to the quality development of qualifications of Youth Workers and shall intensify the debate on the theme of transparency and recognition of competences of Youth Workers within the fields of science, politics and community in Europe.
The Guide consists of three parts. All of them will be published in one folder:
The first part offers general information about the relevance of recognizing competences of Youth Workers in Europe. This part of the brochure creates a connection between important topics and developments of the international discourses and explains the most important terms.
Part two offers a tool which allows an activity oriented classification of competences on qualification levels two to six within the European Qualifications Framework.
Part three is a specific transparency tool for competences of full time Youth Workers and facilitates the connection to formal, specifically academic institutions via the European Qualifications Framework.
While the first part of general information is to be established completely new, parts two and three are built on the base of well-tried competence models of the project partners. These models will be actualized and adapted for international needs. In this way the Guide is a versatilely applicable tool, which offers common orientation as well as concrete models which can be adopted or worked out for respective contexts.
Target groups of the Guide are people responsible for education and training within the field of Youth Work as well as trainers in and participants of trainings for Youth Workers within Europe as well as relevant political stakeholders. It is possible to combine the three different parts of the Guide relating to the respective needs of each target group, because each part will be published as a brochure. So the parts needed can be collected in a folder.
Qualification of Youth Workers is a highly relevant topic within the community and politics of the European countries. On the one hand, because the demand of society on Youth Work (and so also on Youth Workers) is becoming more diverse and complex, on the other hand there are different possibilities of gaining qualification in formal as well in an non-formal learning settings, yet the competences gained in these settings are barely transparent or recognized.
For Youth Workers – volunteers as well as employed workers – precisely this recognition is highly relevant. Against this background both partner institutions developed their competence based models in scientific projects and with broad participation of organizations of Children- and Youth work to illustrate the quality of education and training within this field and to raise recognition of competences.
Comparing these models on European level they are characterized by their well-grounded and elaborated content – both models are related to the European Qualifications Framework and allow transparency as well as recognition of the competences described. Also they have an all-round perspective on different fields of Youth Work. The further development of these models allows to build bridges between the different working fields and possibilities of qualifications of Youth Work, especially between youth work in youth organizations and open Youth Work and between voluntary and full time worker perspectives.
The respective regional, national and structural conditions will be reflected in this transnational cooperation and there will be portrayed the influence on the developing of these models. This is a precondition that the competence models can be used by other stakeholders and synergies between formal and non-formal education can be shown.
Three transnational project meetings as well as other virtual meetings are planned, which will be dedicated to organizational topics and to the content of the Guide. Participants of the project meetings are the staff members of aufZAQ, scientific staff members of the project „JumP“ on the Hochschule Kempten and an external moderator who will monitor the whole project.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 44624 Eur

Project Coordinator

OSTERREICHISCHE KINDER UND JUGENDVERTRETUNG VEREIN & Country: AT

Project Partners

• HOCHSCHULE FUR ANGEWANDTE WISSENSCHAFTEN KEMPTEN