1. Youth Workers’
Digital Competencies
Suvi Tuominen, Verke, Finland
@suvimt
European Youth Work Convention 2020

2. ”There is a need to support the
capacity of youth work to respond
to new challenges and
opportunities posed by new
technologies and digital media.”
The 2nd European Youth Work Declaration

3. Youth Work & Digitalisation on European agenda
- European Union Work Plan for Youth 2016–2018
- Council Conclusions on Smart Youth Work (2017)
- Council Conclusions on Digital Youth Work (2019)
Digital youth work has seen sporadic political
attention, but that these policy discourses and the
resulting declarations at policy level have not yet been
translated into the professional documents framing
youth work practice.
Hofmann-van de Poll, F., Pelzer, M., Riedle, S. & Rottach, A. (2020). The European Discussion
on Youth Work 2015-2020. Munich, German Youth Institute.

4. • Definition of digital youth work
• List of relevant training needs for
youth workers
• Policy Recommendations for
developing digital youth work
• Examples of innovative good practices
• List of online available training material
• Can be found at
https://publications.europa.eu/s/fouj
Expert group on digitalisation & youth

5. 1) Definition of digital youth work
• Digital youth work means proactively using and/or addressing digital media
and technology in youth work.
• Digital youth work is not a youth work method - digital youth work can be included in
any youth work setting (open youth work, youth information and counselling, youth
clubs, detached youth work…).
• Digital youth work has the same goals as youth work in general, and using digital
media and technology in youth work should always support these goals.
• Digital youth work can happen in face-to-face situations as well as in online
environments - or in a mixture of these two. Digital media and technology can be used
either as a tool, an activity or a content in youth work.
• Digital youth work is underpinned by the same ethics, values and principles as youth
work.
Developing digital youth work. 2018.

6. www.digitalyouthwork.eu

7. 2) Training needs for digital youth work
1. Understanding digitalisation of society
2. Knowing how to plan, design and evaluate digital
youth work
3. Supporting young people in information and data
literacy
4. Supporting young people in communication skills
5. Supporting young people in digital creativity
6. Supporting young people in safety skills
7. Knowing how to reflect and evaluate own work &
skills
Developing digital youth work. 2018.

8. 2) Training needs for digital youth work
Key messages from the expert group:
- Every youth worker must understand the
importance of digitalisation
- Youth workers do not need to be tech
experts
- Most important thing is to know how to
include digital elements in one’s own work
- Interest towards technology is more
important than skills, as skills outdate very
quickly

9. What we have learned over the years about training?
• Justifying the need of digital youth work is still needed
• Youth workers need practical examples
• It is more effective to train small groups of working communities than
give mass trainings to 100 people
• Youth workers need peer support from other digi enthusiastics
• Not all youth workers can come to trainings: they need videos, podcasts
etc
• Most important is to talk about how digital links to youth work

10. High-quality youth work requires competent
youth workers.
Having competent youth workers does not
automatically lead to high-quality youth work.

11. www.verke.org/materials

12. Learnings from the pandemic
• Existing digital youth work strategies and local action plans helped the
shift to new normal
• New young people found their way to online youth work services
• It is important to keep up the services that have been created
• Youth workers have now very positive experiences about online work

14. www.verke.org/innobox

17. Kiitos!