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.

<< Objectives >>With the Blockchained Youth Work we wish to tackle the insufficient recognition and validation of youth work, and address them with digital innovation. Our objectives are to :Create a quality framework for educational practices in the field of youthPilot the innovative platform based on the blockchain technology for the validation, recognition, quality assurance and supply of youth work relevant learning outcomesAdvocate for the quality of youth work at national, regional and EU level.<< Implementation >>Core activities are:Analysis of educational practices in partner’s countries (training offer) and existing quality parametersNeeds analysis of various stakeholdersDevelopment and testing of block chain platform and user friendly appsCreating a visual identity of the project and platformSeveral testing events on national and international levelPiloting the platformCollection of national key issues related to youth work recognition and validationAdvocacy activitiesQuality dissemination<< Results >>Main results of the Blockchained Youth Work are to:build 1 blockchain platformdevelop quality framework based on qualitative and quantitative analysis of educational practicesinclude at least 25 organizations in the pilot training certification process, and at least 50 certified trainings on platformanalyse key issues in partner countries related to youth work recognition and validationimplement quality advocacy plan on quality of youth work and sustainable innovative solution

"National Youth Council of Slovenia, together with its partner organizations from Austria, Belgium and Slovenia, recognize the need to regulate the validation and recognition of non-formal education and informal learning in Slovenia, EU Member States and at European Union level, both, in the youth sector and beyond. Non-formal education enables personal development and realisation of young people’s goals, and considerably contributes to their employability. Hence non-formal education contributes to social and economic well-being, and empowers young people to become autonomous, creative and active citizens. Non-formal education in youth work significantly contributes to lifelong learning and to strengthening of young people’s competences. By regulating the recognition of non-formal education, its outcomes and actors, the competences it provides and the tools used to record them, the EU will pay heed to both the needs of its youth and European trends. The aim of the project is to improve the recognition of non-formal education, increase awareness among various stakeholders of the positive effects it has and empower providers of non-formal education in the youth sector, which will result in increased quality of these educations. In doing so, we wish to emphasize the importance of a holistic approach to the organization and implementation of education. When we talk about recognition of non-formal education, we understand it as validation and recognition of the effects of non-formal and informal learning. Project activities can be divided into two groups. The first set is comprised of analyses of the current situation regarding the recognition of non-formal education in the countries of the project partners and on the EU level, as well as drafting recommendations for upgrading existing systems of recognition of non-formal education at all levels. The second set of activities represent study visits, meetings of project partners and organization of conferences, which are meant to raise public awareness about the effects of non-formal education, transfer of knowledge and best practices between the project partners and their home countries and dissemination of the project results. We will carry out: - Training for the stakeholders from the youth sector on non-formal and informal learning, - Conference on the importance of non-formal and informal learning in the formal education, - Conference on the importance of non-formal and informal learning for young people entering the labour market, - National Conference in Austria, - Study visit in Belgium where we will explore their system of recognition of non-formal and informal learning in formal education,- Two transnational meetings of project partners and- Establishment of an expert group in Slovenia, which will be advised in the process of establishing a ""youth worker"" national vocational qualification in Slovenia. A key prerequisite for the successful implementation of the project will be exemplary cooperation of the project partners, based on mutual respect and dialogue, and simultaneous upgrade of project activities on the basis of continuous evaluation and correction of the direction in which we move as a team. With project activities, in particular the proposals for amendments and upgrades for education systems we will set a trend, which will enrich the field of education and to offer youth, as well as all other interested parties, additional way to acquire the knowledge and skills needed in today's society."

The proposal for this project was derived from MMH’s advocacy practice, as well as from information collected through international cooperation with other national youth councils (NYCs) gathered in the largest European platform of youth organisations - the European Youth Forum (YFJ). Therefore, this project reflected an action that aimed to respond on real needs detected in the youth sector Europe-wide, as it also presented a genuine base for a long-term strategic partnership which have ensured the exchange of practices among youth, research organisations and institutions involved in the project.The aim of the project was to initiate and develop the advocacy agenda on necessity of developing quality assurance standards of national strategic and programme documents in the field of youth. Youth organisations gathered in this partnership, with the support of the research partners, did tend to advocate together their findings and joint possitions at the EU level, but also in each of their national contexts. With joint advocacy efforts of the Better Strategies project team and the Expert group on Youth Policy (established by the YFJ, for the first time), they have contributed to more effective youth policies at the European and national level, which was an overall idea behind this project. By engaging NYCs from seven (in this project, and within YFJ even more) EU countries in this advocacy process at the EU level - organisations which represent thousands of young people all over the EU - this strategic partnership have directly influenced stimulating the active participation of young people in the EU policy making, as it provides a solid basis for further development. Project was implemented through these activities: (1) Mapping of key issues in developing and implementing youth policy strategic documents from perspective of NYCs; (2) NYC capacity building training, which have provided necessary skills and knowledge for project partners; (3) development of advocacy tool which represented recommendations towards more successful youth policy (and was communicated and advocated towards relevant stakeholders), including the inputs provided to the Resolution on youth policy standards (adopted at the Spring COMEM 2016); (4) consultations with national bodies in charge of youth, which were used to collect opinions on the recommendations stated in the advocacy paper and to secure the support of the national bodies in later stages of the process (when concrete recommendations will be implemented, especially concerning developing the next long-term youth strategy); (5) advocacy process towards the YFJ (which started its development during the capacity building training, and was done through presentations, dissemination of the project results, etc.) and which did resulted in including some of the key findings from the project in specific resolutions; (6) Follow-up meeting which served for making a proper systematic evaluation of the project and planning future actions/steps which can be organized to successfully continue efforts towards proper and relevant youth policy. Two major results were achieved by implementation of activities specified above: (R1) developed advocacy agenda on quality assurance standards of national strategic and programme documents in the field of youth which was adopted and advocated (and still going on) within a large platform of youth organisations (YFJ); (R2) capacities of national youth councils from the EU partner countries are strengthened and their representatives are now feeling more educated and encouraged in creating and monitoring their concrete national strategic and programme documents in the field of youth, with more active engagement of their respective NYCs. Project results, findings and advocacy efforts were done towards three main target groups: member organisations of the YFJ, representatives of the national bodies in charge of youth policy (inside partner countries), but also representatives in the EU and Council of Europe bodies in charge of youth.The project has strengthened and empowered representatives of the project partner organisations, as it generally has raised awareness of other YFJ member organisation on the necessity of youth advocacy within the area of policy development. Project has also raised the awareness of the representatives of bodies in charge of youth policy development on both levels (those on national and those on EU) on the necessity of more effective youth policy (but also monitoring the results). This project's work, together with the advocacy efforts of the YFJ, did surely reactivate the youth policy topic at the European level after long time and it has a potential to provide some positive changes through clear recommendations dealing with youth strategic documents.

The project deals with the current issues and problems for youth participation in political processes of European digital and Internet policy debate. Today, with the speedy development of digital technology and Internet there is an increasing amount of various political processes to debate the governance of the Internet and related issues on various levels. However, young people being a main consumer and active user of digital technologies, have little access to and awareness of these processes. Youth, as stakeholder group, is severely underrepresented in these discussions. This is the case in Europe, as it is everywhere else in the world.With the European Youth IGF project we created a programme to empower young people to set up their own structures and discuss their views with other stakeholders on their own terms. To accomplish that we have initiated and developed youth structures that will function in parallel to the more common national events and foster relations between youth and older stakeholders. Young people should have the possibility to set the agenda, use their own formats to interact and communicate their ideas and make up their minds. To increase the outreach and effect of this programme we have created further participation opportunities for these youth groups to be recognised as representatives of youth in the Internet Governance multi-­stakeholder process.This almost 3-year project has been implemented through a series of transnational project meetings, based on non-formal facilitation methods of education, ensuring active cooperation and engagement of each partner organisation. Project activities included 4 learning, teaching and training events, 2 intellectual outputs and 8 multiplier events, two per each partner and individual participation of selected youth delegates for relevant meetings in the international Internet governance processes. The impact of this project is the long-term engagement of the young people into digital and Internet policy debate and the creation of participative structures coordinated by young people, based on the idea of co-management and the multi-stakeholder model. The good practice guide is be used further for establishing new Youth IGFs and be dissemination practice, which will maintain the updates and improvements to the process of youth participation in the Internet Governance and related foras on the local, regional, national but also International levels. Longer term benefits of this project will result into well established and interconnected national and international stakeholders meeting and youth participants representing their countries and current state of affairs and issues from the local, regional and national levels. Partner organisations and participants not only gained experience and practical skills on how to establish and organise a Youth IGF practice in their country, but also got an insight into political, social and economic aspects of the Internet Governance as a structure and as a process that undergoes change and development. All relevant parties of this project will also get accustomed with the multi-stakeholder model and decision making process.