The second day of the Exchange Forum on the European Youth Work Agenda explored how the European level supports youth work development. This article provides an overview of the engagement of the European Commission, the EU-Council of Europe Youth Partnership, the Maltese host of the 4th European Youth Work Convention and the network of National Agencies of the EU youth programmes.
The second day of the "3rd Exchange Forum on the European Youth Work Agenda. Boosting national processes for youth work development" was an exploration of the European level processes, looking at the different bodies and instruments. It was a chance to look at how they impact youth work development on national and local levels.
The main contributors to the day were:
Karen explained that her department in the Commission is responsible for steering youth policy and the EU youth programmes. They also actively support the implementation of the European Youth Work Agenda and in general the development of youth work in Europe. She shared about six of the processes that they are responsible for.
The EU Youth Strategy addresses the needs of young people and enables cooperation on youth policy. It is based on three pillars: Engage, Connect, and Empower. Youth work is a major priority for the Empower pillar, where the strategy stresses the importance of developing quality.
The Erasmus+ programmes actively support youth work development at the European, national and local levels. Erasmus+ offers cooperation actions that take place between organisations that are active in the youth field and that have common priorities, challenges, and problems, linked to youth work.
There are also centralised actions like European Youth Together. In this action the priorities of the European Youth Work Agenda are addressed, especially with regards to the recognition of youth work and the visibility of youth work.
This is a group in the Council of Ministers where the Member States come together and discuss issues of importance, create links, and exchange and build knowledge. During the Belgian Presidency they produced the EU Council Resolution on youth work policy in an empowering Europe.
Youth Wiki is an online platform where information is available on youth policy in the different participating countries. Within it there is a chapter on youth work where one can see the state of play of youth work in the different countries.
The National Agencies not only manage the EU youth programme implementation but they also run partnerships called SNACs - Strategic National Agency Cooperation projects. There are currently seven SNACs on different policy issues connected to youth work.
Marvic was asked to provide an update on the developments of the 4th European Youth Work Convention that will take place in Malta from 27-28 May 2025. The Conventions are one of the biggest processes that happen in the European youth field every five years.
Marvic explained that there is a steering group that is responsible for the organising of the Convention. The committee consists of representatives from Malta - governmental, National Agency and Youth Agency. There are representatives from the European Union and the Council of Europe who are responsible for youth. There is the EU-Council of Europe Youth Partnership - which has a key role in the practical part of organising the Convention.
There is a representative from the International Youth Work Trainers Guild and one from the Alliance of Youth Worker Associations. And there are other National Agencies and SALTO representatives. The full overview is available here.
The previous Conventions were reviewed to help plot the direction. The steering group has developed the overall concept, along with the aims and content. The Convention will be ‘taking stock’ - what forms of support have we seen for youth work since the first Convention and what is the current state of youth work! They are using two terms to express this, ‘noise’ and ‘silence’. The Convention will build on the experiences of the past and influence the direction of youth work in Europe for the next five years.
What are policies already telling us? What do we know already? Why are we talking about these issues and what can we do about them to enable them and to enable our research?
What is not being said yet, and why is it not being talked about? What is hindering us from discussing these things?
Laszlo was asked to share about the work of the Youth Partnership and its contribution to European level processes including the Convention. The Partnership has offices in Strasbourg and Brussels. Its work is organised around three main pillars, youth research, youth policy and youth work.
Laszlo shared that the Youth Partnership is a long-standing cooperation between the two big European institutions and is one of the oldest joint projects of the Council of Europe and the European Union - it was started 26 years ago. One of the important results of the previous Convention in 2020, was that the two institutions agreed to invest more in supporting youth work development at the European level.
One of the roles that the partnership has had in the last years has been the gathering of knowledge and evidence for supporting youth work and youth policy. They have published numerous research studies and publications that are available through the website. These include T-Kits which are manuals for youth workers and trainers on a variety of topics. There is also the quality magazine, Coyote which is based on articles written regularly by practitioners from the field.
The Partnership works on topics that are the priorities of both institutions. Laszlo explained that they bring the community of practice together regularly around these topics through seminars and symposia. They also work closely with and support countries that are not part of the EU - South East Europe, and Eastern Europe and Caucasus. They organise an annual regional symposium for both regions.
The topic of recognition of youth work has been widely discussed throughout the last decade and the Partnership has had a key part in this. A section of the Youth Partnerships website, Visible Value, is dedicated to recognition.
The Partnership has the coordinating role in the preparation of the Convention working very closely with both the European Commission and the Council of Europe. This includes the work of the steering group and the selection of the facilitators and rapporteurs who will be working at the event.
Barbara explained that the network of National Agencies of the EU youth programmes including the German National Agency has a particular focus on the development of youth work. Barbara shared four European processes that are supported by National Agencies that are for young people and youth organisations.
Barbara shared two particular parts of the Erasmus+ Youth programme. Key Action 1, which is for youth exchanges and youth worker mobility projects, and Key Action 2, which are the strategic cooperation projects. She explained that National Agencies are especially interested in applications that link to the EU Youth Strategy or to the European Youth Work Agenda and encouraged people to contact their National Agency to seek more information and support.
National Agencies and SALTOs produce training courses, conferences and seminars for youth workers and youth work organisations. They are on specific topics, focus on certain skills, or can support knowledge on the implementation of a mobility. SALTO Training and Cooperation, hosts the European Training Calendar which has all these seminars, training courses, platforms, and networking activities available on it.
This SNAC European Academy on Youth Work is a project hosted by the National Agency of Slovenia with 14 other National Agencies and SALTOs. The Academy is about youth work development and innovation. This current cycle is about new trends and future thinking which was supported by a research team who carried out a future foresight study, Futures of Youth Work.
Another SNAC, is Growing Youth Work. After the third Convention in 2021 there was a desire at the German National Agency to contribute more to the thematic discussions that are going on at the European level.
This SNAC has provided that opportunity and has explored a large number of topics linked to the Agenda in the last years and will continue to offer more in the future, especially in connection with the fourth Convention. It has also been an important tool for bringing people together and creating stronger networks through events and activities such as the Exchange Forum.