Non-formal education in youth work

“Non-formal education in youth work” is an action 5.1 trans-national youth seminar that involves 30 participants from different European countries in an open process of discussing, analyzing and debating on the importance of social recognition of youth work and non-formal activities. Project objectives are: 1)To promote the recognition of young people’s skills and learning acquired through participation in youth work activities; 2)To raise the visibility of youth work, its impact on young people’s lives and its contribution to society; 3)To enhance the social recognition of youth work in society; 4)Raise awareness about different levels of recognition of youth work in society; 5)Share and discuss experiences, examples and possibilities of working towards recognition in different societies. Before actual implementation of the seminar national consultations will take place in each participating countries in order to see if and how is non-formal education recognized at local level. The results of those consultations will be used in the seminar as a starting point and further on, together with the conclusions and recommendations of the seminar will be used in shaping a draft recommendations document that will be sent to national and European policy makers. Various non-formal educations methods will be used during the seminar to achieve planned objectives. The meeting will take place in Drobeta Turnu Severin, Romania for a period of 5 working days.

Project objectives

The project seeks to contribute to the following objectives:
• To promote the recognition of young people’s skills and learning acquired through participation in youth work activities;
• To raise the visibility of youth work, its impact on young people’s lives and its contribution to society;
• To enhance the social recognition of youth work in society;
• Raise awareness about different levels of recognition of youth work in society;
• Share and dicuss experiences, examples and possibilities of working towards recognition in different societies.

Key issues related to this are:
• There should be an individual entitlement to get non-formal and informal learning experiences validated, but;
• It should be a voluntary matter for individuals asking for validation;
• There should be an obligation for stakeholders, in accordance with their rights, responsibilities and competences, to establish systems & approaches for validation, including quality assurance mechanisms & guidance provision;
• Validation of non-formal learning must be based on confidence & trust: this means processes, procedures and criteria must be fair & transparent;
• Systems and approaches for identification and validation should be credible and legitimate.
These principles should be adapted by country & by context on a voluntary basis and be disseminated and promoted by involved parties. NGO’s engaged in providing lifelong learning opportunities are also encouraged to use and adopt the common European principles as appropriate.

The main activity that this project proposes is a transnational youth seminar aimed to address the above mentioned issues, exchange good practices in participating countries related to social recognition of non-formal education and to propose viable solutions that can be applied at local level. The meeting which is planned to take place in May 2011 for a maximum of 5 working days should be attended by 30 participants, youth workers, young people and different stakeholders interested by the topic of the project.

Before the meeting, national online consultations will take place in all partner countries. That is planned in order to seek for people opinion and to look for possible solutions offered at local level. The results of these consultations will be presented during the seminar and also will be included in the draft document containing conclusions and recommendations that should be drafted as a result of the seminar and presented to European Commission as well as national stakeholders (governments, ministries, etc).

A good practices database with identified European initiatives that address social recognition of NFE will be realizes. This database will be available online as well on hard copies that will be printed.

Project dates:
Project will start on January 1th 2014 and will last till August 2014.

The European meeting within the project is scheduled to take place in June 2014 in Romania.