Youth@Work Empowering Youth Workers: Recognizing their role in promoting social entrepreneurship and employability among young people

Aims & objectives

The aim of this seminar was to raise awareness of the crucial contribution of youth work in the field of competence development, social entrepreneurship and youth employability .

The objectives were:

- Reflect and learn about different European competence frameworks and delve in the diverse competences that need to be developed to boost young people’s employability

- Discover strategies and resources in youth work to promote entrepreneurial learning among young people.

- Increase awareness of the relevance of the recognition of the role of youth workers in enhancing youth employability and entrepreneurship.
Introduce to and reflect on the characteristics, benefits, values and factors of social entrepreneurship, as a strategy for youth employability.

- Motivate participants to undertake and make use of social entrepreneurship as a force for youth employability.

- Create a network for cooperation and sharing of experience among the participants.

Target group & international/intercultural composition of the group & team

There were 20 participants with different profiles: Youth workers, Trainers, Youth leaders, Youth project managers, Volunteering mentors, and also to Professionals from backgrounds of: Non-formal education/Youth. We were 3 facilitarors coming from Italy and Spain. There was the representation of about 12 nationalities in the group.

Training methods used & main activities

The Methodology was based on the principles of Non-Formal Education and encouraged the active participation of the attendants, combining training sessions with different workshops and spaces for individual/group reflections and co-creation.

Throughout the seminar, the balance between theoretical sessions and interactive methods allowed the consolidation of knowledge, highlighting the importance to “learning by doing”, relying on the experience of the group and approaching the learning process in the most practical way possible. There were also study visits and a debate session to complement the content and information provided to participants.

Outcomes of the activity

The outcomes of the seminar were the following:

- Participants increased their knowledge and awareness of the role of youth workers in society

- Participants were empowered by discovering and learning about different competence frameworks that can enable them to support young people in developing their potential

- Participants discovered social entrepreneurship practices that are contributing to a more responsible society and a different way to look at businesses

- And participants developed a wider network to foster potential cooperation connected to the topics of this seminar.

Your tasks and responsibilities within the team

I was one of the three trainers of this training course.
My responsibilities came from the design of the training program, content and methodology. We also participated in the review and selection of participants.

I also participated in the development of materials, and content for the daily work, and the development of the training within the participants.
After the training program finished, I elaborated, within my partners, the final report of the activity.

I worked on this training for 5 days as a full time trainer.