log in personal page contact us EGL

Youth workers need…

Previous bullet point Next bullet point

to have the competences, i.e. knowledge, skills, attitudes and values, necessary for carrying out youth work in accordance with the principles and actions described in this Charter.

Back to chapter

Introduction

Competence could be defined as your ability to use your knowledge and skills in order to achieve set aims, and where ability consists of motivation and attitudes. This means that youth worker education and training as well as further competence development need to focus on all these factors in order to be successful – it should develop motivation and attitudes as well as knowledge, skills and the understanding of to what end these should be used.

The possible competences needed range from social pedagogic skills, over digital skills, to project management and they can, together with many more, be found through the references below. However, the basic competence will always be the ability to stimulate and support young people to engage in and take responsibility for activities that are based on their own needs, interests, ideas and experiences, thus contributing to their personal and social development through non-formal and informal learning.

Guiding questions

To what degree does our local youth work meet this bullet point?

Are there sides/aspects of it that are not reached?
Are there differences related to different activities?
Are there differences related to different groups of young people?
Are there differences related to different youth work providers?
Are there other differences? Related to what?

Specific questions
  • How do we see to that our youth workers have relevant competencies?
    • How could we map existing competences as well as the need for competence development?
  • How can we use existing support material and tools from the Council of Europe and the EU to develop a clearer picture of the competences needed and to develop them?
  • How are we balancing general core competences with the need for more specific, ‘edge’, competences?
  • Are we recruiting youth workers based on a clear set of required competences?
    • Are we looking at youth work as a simple job that does not require specific competences besides being ‘a nice and social person’?

Self-assessment

You have to be logged in to make the self-assessment.

Good practices & tools

  • Regional government and cities together for youth

Learn more 

  • City Incubator = Helping make the ideas of youth happen

Learn more 

Future steps

What different steps do we need to take in order to meet this bullet point?

Do we miss any knowledge that we need?
Do we need to take contact with stakeholders not present in our discussions?
Do we need to develop new competences, methods, work processes or organisational structures?
Can we find good practices or tools that might help us to improve this?
Do we have positive experiences from other areas of youth work that we can use also in this case?
Are there other organisations that we can contact and learn from regarding this?
Do we need to take other measures?
Do we have to revise our perspectives and/or priorities regarding youth work?

You have to be logged in to enter future steps.