1. Expert Group meeting – 9/10 April 2019
Dunja Potočnik
Institute for Social Research in Zagreb / Pool of the European Youth Researchers
Views of educators and youth work managers on the youth workers competences

2. METHODOLOGY There are three components of the survey:
two focus groups – a national one held in September in Zagreb, and an international one (conducted during the SEE Youth Work Seminar in November 2018 in Ljubljana); the focus groups gathered 28 participants in total, from Albania, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Kosovo, the Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia.
10 interviews with the youth workers educators and youth work managers supporting the Erasmus+ project Europe Goes Local organised in June A sample of interviewees consisted of 10 experts supporting the Europe Goes Local Erasmus+ project, coming from Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Portugal and Sweden.
an online survey on the youth work managers and educators from across the Members States of the Council of Europe (108 respondents in total; some questions were answered by only respondents). The respondents came from Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Belarus, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, the Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain and the UK.
The respondents were asked a set of questions on their professional experience, participation in non-formal learning and their assessment of the skills, knowledge and values that are taught to and acquired by the youth, followed by their attitudes and insights on improving the conditions for quality training and learning of the competences in the youth field.

3. THE RESULTS (I)
The respondents of the online survey were asked to try to assess a level of expertise of the youth workers they are working with, according to Council of Europe Youth Work Portfolio. Function 3. Support and empower young people in making sense of society they live in and in engaging with it is the one where the youth workers seem the most proficient, followed by the Function 1. Address the needs and aspirations of young people, which is understandable as these areas of competences enable the youth workers to work with the young people on the most general, everyday level. Functions that are linked to the least expertise of the youth workers – Function 5. Actively practise evaluation to improve the quality of the youth work conducted does not bring a surprise, as it requires knowledge on the project work and more diverse experience in the youth field.
Participants of the focus groups have recognised certain areas of expertise of the youth workers that need improvement that actually encompass what can be regarded as a totality of the competences in the youth field:
1. Ability to adapt to the needs of young people and listening to the young people;
2. Understanding of the methods that are to be used in project work;
3. Critical thinking;
4. Communication and presentation skills, especially in relation to the outreach ;
5. Pedagogical and psychological skills;
6. Organising and devising specific approach for specific groups like educators, youth workers, etc.
7. Self-assessment skills;
8. Evaluation skills;
9. Competences related to fundraising;
Skills required for project management.

4. THE RESULTS (II)
Table 6: Modes of support offered to the youth workers during acquiring the competences
Support offered to the youth workers during acquiring the competences
Number of responses
Organising trainings 29
Regular supervision and coordination of activities 5
Opportunities for networking and peer-learning 3
Funding training and exchanges 2
Providing help in obtaining certificates
Providing tools and guidance for self-assessment and evaluation
Support in writing project proposals and project management
Dissemination of information on relevant youth work activities 1
Help of the pool of trainers
“We do have everything on the paper. Everything is put on the paper and government just copy past everything from other countries. They just do it because the European Commission is asking them to do it.”
“Youth Worker is a problematic title as anyone can be called a youth worker (volunteer, session worker, Full time employee) – the title doesn't demonstrate the competences held. Should there be a national register of qualified workers, or a different title given and used for different positions (although how would you avoid people from using this title)?”

5. THE CONCLUSIONS (I)
An added value of the surveys is related to collecting the proposals for improvements in the field of training and learning of the youth workers. The proposals come from highly experienced youth work experts, majority of whom work as either youth workers educators or a combination of the youth workers educators and managers.
Almost ninety percent of the respondents are aware of at least one of the competence frameworks and two thirds of them uses these frameworks in their work.
Among the youth workers educators and youth work managers included in the survey slightly more than half use or advise the youth workers to use competence self-assessment tools.
Respondents of the focus groups and interviews were asked to identify the most important areas of competences required for quality performing the youth work and in total 10 areas of competences were reported, where each of these areas can be translated into the Functions of the Council of Europe Model. This common understanding of the competence frameworks should be used for further development of the quality youth work on the national and international level.
When asked what are the areas of potential impact of the competence frameworks in the youth field the respondents indicated that raising quality of youth work, setting the standards for youth work and a role of the youth workers, development of the competences, and recognition of youth work and youth workers profession are the most prominent potential impacts of the usage of the competence frameworks.

6. THE CONCLUSIONS (II)
Personal knowledge and recognition of the competence frameworks imply that on average each respondent recognise one to two competence frameworks, majority of which were developed on the international level, while the local or national models were listed by 10 youth workers educators and youth work managers.
The answers indicate that better recognition and validation of youth work, especially on a national level absolutely ‘wins’ as it gathered most single answers.
More efforts and financial resources should be invested in promotion and recognition of the competence frameworks, as well as in further development of the existing ones and devising new specialised ones (e.g. for working with vulnerable and marginalised youth).
The competence frameworks should be fine-tuned to the needs of contemporary young people and recognise changes in society and in different communities of the young people.
Development and improvement of the competence frameworks should be accompanied by promotion and recognition of the youth workers profession and fair financial and status compensation for their efforts.