Cities of Learning

Nerijus, thanks for your time. Can you tell us something about who you are and your connection to youth work?

My name is Nerijus Kriauciunas from Lithuania. I started in youth work as a participant of local youth work activities and then some international activities. I slowly grew into the role of a trainer over the years. Together with some friends, also involved in youth work, we founded our own youth work and training organisation named Awero.

One of our approaches to youth work has always been to make partnerships with other organisations at both national and international levels. We mainly provide training activities like training for youth workers and we also engage in projects like strategic partnerships.

Our goal is to develop innovation in youth work especially in digital areas. A current piece of work is engaging young people in a project connected to the European Youth Goals with citizenship learning, the project involves young people and partners from the Cities of Learning.

What is Cities of Learning? 

Cities of Learning is a global network with more than 30 members in Europe but also around the world. It consists of organisations which are involved in youth work, non-formal education, and adult education.

We collaborate with municipalities and some of them are also part of the network. We promote inclusive and accessible learning and recognition opportunities in each of the cities where there is a partner – interestingly there are also in some cases regions of learning and even islands of learning.

So is Cities of Learning a youth work based concept or is it broader than just young people and youth work?

At its core it is focused on young people and youth work but at the same time we are able to broaden our partnerships and in some places we have more of a focus on adult education. There are also institutions like municipalities or regional authorities who we have made partnerships with and here we focus more on policy development – we work on policy recommendations together with young people.

We also collaborate with national and international youth work associations – including the Alliance of Youth Workers Associations and the International Youth Work Trainers Guild – which enables us to really contribute to youth work, and competence and qualification development.

What are some of the key activities that have been implemented through Cities of Learning, specifically in connection with youth work in Europe?

We are currently running an Erasmus+ accreditation project with around 30 organisations as partners – local, national and international level. For this project we have developed modular training courses for youth workers and trainers which are aligned to the European Training Strategy competence models.

We take one of the competence areas, each partner identifies their participants needs according to that competence area, and then we develop the programme based on those needs.

So far we have implemented two trainings for youth workers, one on programme design and the other one on facilitating learning. We have also implemented two trainings for youth work trainers, these were on facilitating learning and digital confidence.

As part of this project we have developed a series of pathways for professional development linked to each competence area. The pathway is not predefined, it is totally flexible, participants can start with any competence area and then continue with any other one of their choice.

They can go at their own pace and find their own path both for their professional development and for finding an answer to those questions. Digital Open Badges are an important part of this ‘pathway’, they show clearly to those participating, what needs to be done, what needs to be achieved and where they need to develop.

One thing we have recognised is that many youth workers and trainers do not engage in self-assessment very often and for some this is because of a lack of assessment literacy. Whatever the reason, not engaging in self-assessment means neglecting ones own professional development.

We are tackling this in our courses, we even allocate a full session every day just for that. In the past we maybe would give half an hour to do it, now we give a full session dedicated to just that. It is something we have come to realise is very important for the professional development of youth workers.

You mentioned digital badges in your previous answer. What role does the digital aspect play in Cities of Learning?

It is interesting for us how digital technologies are supporting the process of learning and how sometimes it is not so obvious that this digital aspect could be a solution. In our case in Cities of Learning, the use of digital platforms, digital badges, and digital assessment tools is central to the work.

By providing these opportunities in our training courses, we see how the participants develop their digital competencies. When the participants see how easily they can use the technology they realise they can implement such technologies in their programmes with young people.

Looking to the future, let’s say about five years, what would you like to see happening in youth work? 

I would ideally like to see that national and local youth work agendas include more of the European dimension. The challenges young people face are not just local anymore. Simple things as supporting youth workers to go abroad on youth worker mobilities needs to become more common, even if currently the international dimension is not part of the mission of that organisation.

The European Youth Work Agenda has its national points of references, which often link it with national institutions or national youth work development organisations, this makes for a good framework. It would be good to have even greater coordination between these bodies in the future.

For example, for national level formal education youth worker qualification training. It would be an important step to have international training courses counted and recognised as part of that students development and that this actually becomes a requested part in the curriculum for becoming a youth worker.

In May 2025, there will be the 4th European Youth Work Convention, what message would you like to be passed on to the Convention?

I think what I would recommend is that the people at the Convention look beyond our own qualification development and the recognition of competencies. Sometimes I feel that our sector is self-isolating, we are not so much following and connecting to what is going on beyond the youth work sector.

I think we are afraid to lose our identity and ways of learning if we look outside. However, I think other sectors are incorporating so many flexible ways of learning and gaining of qualifications, and have moved far beyond us. We were always saying we are “the pioneers” of that kind of learning, but I think now we need to catch up a bit with other sectors.

(Interview by Nik Paddison)

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