INTRODUCTION
This document outlines the development of an international project that involved the participation of youth workers from various countries, aimed at fostering the exchange of experiences and skills in youth working. Through a series of carefully planned activities, the project sought to empower youth workers to promote skills among young people that facilitate their employability.
The initial phase of the project focused on planning, where organizations from different countries collaborated to reflect on the needs of the youth workers and ensure that the design of the activities was effective and relevant. The next step was to prepare the participants linguistically and culturally, creating an environment conducive to international mobility. During the three mobilities (Youth Exchange), held in different European countries, the young people had the opportunity to address socially and environmentally relevant issues while developing multilingual competencies and sharing knowledge about working with young people.
The project concluded with an ongoing monitoring process, ensuring that the outcomes from the mobilities were reflected upon and disseminated among participants, promoting continuous learning and the sharing of experiences.
This document provides details of the activities carried out, the methods used, and the profile of the participants, offering a comprehensive view of the project’s impact and its contribution to the personal and collective development of the youth workers involved.
BACKGROUND
In 2022, 14.5% of young people in the EU (aged 15-24) were unemployed. Despite the slowdown in general unemployment seen since 2021, youth unemployment remains high in most European countries, even rising slightly in some Member States (EUROSTAT, 2023), which means that the policy measures implemented are not having the desired effect on young people, who continue to suffer from the effects of this social problem. In addition to the clear negative economic impact, youth unemployment has other equally significant impacts: for example, it generates self-esteem problems and increases vulnerability to risky behaviour, compromising young people’s mental health and increasing the potential for exclusion of this group (United Nations Commission, 2007). It also leads to resignation, complacency and the feeling that fate is set in stone and there is no way to change it, which demotivates young people and increases disbelief in their potential and their capacity for transformation. This is, therefore, a problem with multiple negative effects on society, conditioning the opportunity for an inclusive, fair and sustainable society at a social and economic level. Severe for all young people, the problem of unemployment affects particularly vulnerable communities, such as fishing communities. According to the available data, unemployment rates in these communities tend to be more than double those of the surrounding regions. This is because, for historical and cultural reasons, we are generally dealing with a population with low levels of schooling, low socio-cultural status, incipient and short-term life projects, with few demands on themselves and their neighbours, pessimistic, complacent and not very enterprising (Duarte, 2005).
Therefore, we defined the action plan for this project, which focuses on training youth workers. Our aim is that, after the FYN, the youth workers will be able, together with the young people they work with, to develop actions with real potential for transformation and impact in terms of employability. In particular, we’re invested in training for the implementation of NFE actions which, through the exploitation of local and community resources (in this case, through the revitalisation of ancestral shipbuilding techniques, the hallmark of fishing communities), promote transversal competences and entrepreneurship which made it easier for youth workers to prepare them for the challenges of youth working.
MISSION
The mission of the project is to provide a cultural exchange experience that enables youth workers from different countries to learn about practices and techniques among young people. The project aims to create a space for sharing experiences, developing intercultural skills, and promoting social inclusion. Through collaborative activities and reflection, participants were encouraged to work together, developing innovative solutions to some problems very common amoung young people.
VISION
The vision of the project is to contribute to the creation of an international network of engaged youth workers, aware of the importance of keeping the innovation on their work. The project aspires to be a reference point for promoting social inclusion and the personal and professional development of youth workers. It is expected that by the end of the project, participants will have a broader perspective of their abilities and the positive impact they can have on their young community.
OBJECTIVES
To stimulate systemic changes that make the intervention of youth workers more effective, we have defined the following objectives:
- Empower youth workers to promote skills among young people that facilitate their employability;
- Identify and compile good practices in the use of NFE applied to the exploitation of local and community resources, as a way of promoting long-life competences and entrepreneurship competences in young people;
- To promote innovation and quality in the interventions provided by the youth workers, particularly through the sharing and exploitation of different and innovative experiences of working with young people (particularly ancestral shipbuilding techniques). PARTICIPANTS
We implemented 3 job shadowing activities – one for each participating organisation. Each job shadowing lasted for 5 days, and 12 youth workers will participate – 4 from the receiving organisation and 8 from the sending organisations. After each job shadowing, we implemented, locally, activities that allowed youth workers to test and validate good practices they observed and reflected while on job shadowing. Selected participants are youth workers that regularly implement activities that promote young people’s social development, as well as young people’s inclusion and growing autonomy. They share a humanistic conception about the individuals they work with and are particularly invested in exploring the importance of working directly with young people, their challenges and how to face them.