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Research Report

Project result 3

Summary

Our research aims to provide insights into whether our training methodologies used in youth projects are effective in developing core skills. Through aggregated data and comprehensive assessments, the research seeks to establish the validity and impact of the proposed training methodology for future youth projects.
A total of 55 participants from the three Erasmus+ projects (ProfessionalED, Facilitate the Change, and KFC Reloaded) were involved in the research. All participants were active youth workers and/or trainers. The analysis showed a consistent improvement in participants’ skills across the different training courses. The aggregate score, which averaged 10.4 before the first training, increased to 12.6 after the final training session, reflecting an overall improvement of 21%. This suggests significant development in participants' essential skills through the course of the training program. Most participants demonstrated statistically significant improvements in essential skills after each training courses.
The data strongly supports Hypothesis 1, that participants developed essential skills throughout the training cycle. The 21% improvement in the aggregate score underscores the efficacy of the training and assessment methodology in fostering skill development in youth workers and trainers. The findings suggest that the training methodology, particularly when coupled with both self-assessments and external assessment (as seen in ProfessionalED), is effective in competence development.
While Hypothesis 1 was strongly supported by the quantitative data (showing significant skill development over the training cycle), Hypothesis 2—which proposed a correlation between training outcomes and professional performance—was not supported by the data. The lack of significant correlations could be attributed to a combination of small sample size, methodological differences. While Hypothesis 2 was not supported by the quantitative data, interviews revealed that participants were actively applying the skills they learned in both their professional and personal lives.
The qualitative research in this research report reinforced the idea that participants in ProfessionalED project experienced significant personal growth, which also had a positive impact on their professional lives. Furthermore, holistic approach of the methodology, which focused on both personal and professional development, proved to be highly effective in creating lasting change in participants. The strong emphasis on self-reflection, emotional intelligence, and community building were key factors in making the experience transformative and impactful for the participants.
In future studies, it would be valuable to expand the sample size and refine assessment methods to better capture the connection between personal growth and professional performance.

Quantitative Research and its Findings

This project aims to validate a novel training and assessment methodology as an alternative to traditional approaches for evaluating training success in Erasmus+ and - in a wider perspective - youth projects. This report is focused on drawing conclusions from ProfessionalEDs’ training and assessment methodology, however, the decision was made to aggregate ProfessionalEducations’ data with two other similar projects: Keys for Change (KFC) Reloaded, and Facilitate the Change. The decision to aggregate the data from these three projects was based on two main considerations.
First, to draw meaningful conclusions from the data, it is essential to meet certain preconditions, the most important of which is having a sufficiently large sample size to detect the significant impacts of the training programs. Since each Erasmus+ project has a limited number of available spots, and considering the long-term nature of the ProfessionalED program (3 trainings spread out over one year), it was anticipated that the number of participants completing the full training would be too small to effectively capture its impact.
Second, the training methodologies used in Keys for Change (KFC) Reloaded and Facilitate the Change closely align with the methodology used in ProfessionalED. For instance, participating in the first training session of KFC is expected to yield similar outcomes to participating in the first training session of either Facilitate the Change or ProfessionalED.
These two factors - the need to ensure the scientific rigor and generalizability of the statistical analysis, and the methodological similarity between the projects - led us to aggregate and analyze the data from all three projects as a whole. However, there were some differences between the projects, which are outlined below.
ProfessionalED and KFC both consisted of three training moments, interspersed with fieldwork sessions. Facilitate the Change, by contrast, included only one training session and did not involve fieldwork. Among these, ProfessionalED featured the most robust assessment methodology, incorporating both self-assessments and external evaluations (conducted after each fieldwork activities), while for the others, there were no external evaluations, only self-assessments. This dual approach provided an additional layer of evaluation to compare self-perceived and externally observed skill acquisition, making it the most comprehensive assessment model of the three projects.
Before starting the program, participants in all projects completed a self-administered diagnostic questionnaire based on the SkillsBuilder Universal Framework, assessing eight core skills critical to youth work: listening, speaking, problem-solving, creativity, staying positive, aiming high, leadership, and teamwork. After each training moment, participants completed a self-assessment questionnaire to evaluate their progress in these skill areas.
The goal of this report is to evaluate the development of essential skills for youth workers and trainers, focusing on whether the training methodology contributed to measurable improvements in skills, as assessed through both self-assessment and external evaluation. Therefore, we tested the following hypotheses:
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Hypothesis 1
Participants developed essential skills throughout the training cycle.
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Hypothesis 2
There is a correlation between an individual's performance in their professional life and the training cycle, thereby providing insights into the reliability and validity of the proposed methodology.

Participants or target group

A total of 55 participants took part in the three Erasmus+ projects: ProfessionalED, Facilitate the Change, and KFC Reloaded. The selection criteria required participants to be active youth workers or trainers. The breakdown of participant pool is presented as follows:
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Map 1: Distribution of participants by nationality.
ProfessionalED
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26 participants, 15 female and 11 male;
Participants came from Netherlands (4), Hungary (7), Italy (7), Portugal (5), Czech Republic (3).
Facilitate the Change
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17 participants, 11 female and 6 male;
Participants came from Romania (2), Hungary (5), France (3), Spain (2), Czech Republic (2), Greece (2), Belgium (1).
Keys For Change Reloaded
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12 participants, 11 female and 1 male;
Participants came from Turkey (1), Austria (1), Belgium (1), Hungary (1), France (2), Portugal (1), Serbia (1), Slovakia (1), Latvia (1), Netherlands (1) and Italy (1).
The participants' diverse backgrounds provided a rich cross-cultural perspective on the training methodology. The gender distribution within the projects ensures a balanced representation, with variations observed across projects. Notably, ProfessionalED maintained a more balanced gender distribution, while Facilitate the Change and KFC Reloaded had a higher proportion of female participants.

Research design and methodology

The research design was structured to assess the effectiveness of a training and assessment methodology implemented across three Erasmus+ projects: ProfessionalED, Facilitate the Change, and KFC Reloaded. The data available allows for a longitudinal design by comparing the different moments of both self-assessment and external evaluation (in the case of ProfessionalED). The different moments are described as follows:
Training moments and self-assessments: Before the first training moment, participants completed the diagnostic questionnaire using the SkillsBuilder framework. This happened again three more times after the completion of the training moments. Therefore, there are four different data collections regarding the self-assessments. Exceptionally, the program Facilitate the Change only had one moment of training, which then corresponded to the first moment of training of all the programs.
Fieldwork: Participants of ProfessionalED and KFC reloaded completed self-assessments after their fieldwork. This moment happened after the training moments, as it was an opportunity for participants to apply what was learned previously in the training sessions.
External assessment: Only ProfessionalED involved an external assessment, which took place after the fieldwork moments. Experienced assessors observed the participants' fieldwork performances and evaluated their skills in real-life scenarios. These assessments were made by using the same SkillsBuilder framework.
Scale used for assessments
As mentioned before, the quantitative scale used to measure the target skills was the SkillsBuilder universal framework. This framework assesses the abilities in eight key skills: listening, speaking, problem solving, creativity, staying positive, aiming high, leadership, and teamwork. For each skill, participants evaluated themselves using a scale of 0 to 15. The scale for each skill was composed of 15 questions, each addressing a component of the skill. For example, one question for the “Speaking” skill was: “I speak engagingly by using tone, expression and gesture to engage listeners”. The possible answers for these questions, range from "Never" to "Almost Always." The score for each skill is computed depending on the answers to each of the questions. Additionally, and as mentioned before, external evaluators used the same scale during fieldwork.
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Hypothesis 1
Participants developed essential skills throughout the training cycle.
Summary
To evaluate the effectiveness of the training methodology and assess whether participants developed the targeted skills over time, a series of paired t-tests were conducted. These tests were used to compare participants' self-assessed skill levels at different stages of the training program.
The following comparisons were made:
Before Training 1 to After Training 1 (N = 53):
This comparison aimed to assess whether participants’ self-assessed skills improved immediately following the first training moment, when compared to before the training started.
The number of participants in this analysis slightly differs from the full sample, as there were two participants who completed the first training but did not complete any self-assessment moments.
After Training 1 to After Training 2 (N = 26):
This comparison involved participants who had completed both Training 1 and Training 2, after which their self-assessed skills were compared. Note that Facilitate the Change (FTC) participants were excluded from this comparison, as they only participated in Training 1.
After Training 2 to After Training 3 (N = 17):
This comparison examined participants who completed the self-assessment after training 2 and after training 3, the final training moment.
Before Training 1 to After Training 3 (N = 20):
This comparison assessed whether participants showed overall skill development from the beginning of the program (before Training 1) to the end (after Training 3). This analysis included only participants who completed the first self-assessment, before the first training and the final self-assessment, after the final training of the program. Counterintuitively, there are more participants in this comparison than in the previous one, as there were some (3 participants) that participated in the first and last moments, but not in the self-assessment post training 2.
This rationale for comparisons, consisting in comparing only those participants that were present at each moment, allows us to control for survivorship bias, due to dropout during the program and analyze only the differences related to the participants that completed each of the training moments.
Method of analysis
Each of these comparisons was made for each of the eight key skills, as well as the aggregate score across all skills. The goal was to evaluate whether participants’ self-perceptions of their skill levels changed significantly across the different stages of the training program.
Paired t-tests were run to compare the mean self-assessment scores at each time point. For each test, the null hypothesis (that there is no significant difference between the two assessments) was tested against the alternative hypothesis (that there is a significant difference). If statistically significant differences are found for each comparison, lends support to hypothesis 1: “Participants developed essential skills throughout the training cycle.”
The analysis considered both individual skills and the aggregate score, allowing for a comprehensive understanding of overall skill development as well as progress in specific areas.
Rationale for grouping
It is important to note that the training methodology was consistent across the projects, so the comparisons were made regardless of project membership. However, the number of participants in each comparison varied, as only those who participated in both assessment moments of each comparison were included in the paired t-tests. This explains why the sample size (N) differs between the comparisons (e.g., N = 53, N = 26, N = 17, and N = 20).
By conducting these paired comparisons, we aimed to determine whether there were significant improvements in participants' self-reported skills throughout the course of the training program. If significant changes were observed, this would suggest that the training methodology effectively fostered skill development.
Results Hypothesis 1
Before Training 1 vs. Post Training 1
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Graph A: This graph illustrates the changes between the assessments done before training 1 and after training 1 (N = 53) Every change between assessment moments was statistically significant, having the skill “Listening” with the greatest improvement (1.3), and the skill “Problem Solving” with the least improvement (0.6). Overall, the trend of results indicate an increase in the self-assessment scores, with an average increase of 0.9 points.
Post Training 1 vs. Post Training 2
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Graph B: This graph illustrates the changes between the assessments done after training 1 and after training 2( N = 26). “Problem Solving” and “Creativity” were the skills which improved the most (0.8) and “Listening” was the skill which improved the least (0.6). As for “Leadership” and “Teamwork”, the increases were not statistically significant, therefore we cannot draw conclusions regarding their improvement. Overall, the mean change for all skills (0.7) suggests that, even if more modest than the previous moment, there was an improvement.
Post Training 2 vs. Post Training 3
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Graph C: This graph illustrates the changes between the assessments done after training 2 and after training 3 (N = 17). “Problem Solving” was the skill which improved the most (1.5) and “Creativity” and “Leadership” were the skills which improved the least (1.1). Even though the differences range from 0.6 to 1.0, the changes in self-assessments for “Listening”, “Speaking” and “Teamwork” were not statistically significant. It is important to note that, since the sample size varies for each moment of analysis, this means that the same degree of change in different moments may in one instance be statistically significant, while not in other cases. For example, in Graph B, all statistically significant changes were smaller than 1.0 points. However, in this case, “Speaking” increased by 1.0 points and there is not enough sample size to allow us to conclude that this increase is significant.
Before Training 1 vs. Post Training 3
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Graph D: This graph illustrates the changes between the assessments done before training 1 and after training 3 (N = 20). In essence, it shows the magnitude of change throughout the whole project. Every change between assessment moments was statistically significant, having the skills “Listening” and “Staying Positive” with the largest improvements (2.5 and 2.4). “Problem Solving” and “Leadership” were the skills which improved the least (2.1). Overall, the trend of results indicate an increase in the self-assessment scores, with a mean of 2.3.
Trendline
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Graph E: This graph illustrates the aggregate score for every self-assessment moment during the project, considering only the participants who took part in every single self-assessment moment (N = 17). Overall, the trend of results indicates a constant increase in the self-assessment scores throughout the whole training.
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Discussion Hypothesis 1:
This pattern of results clearly shows a positive development of the self-assessed skills in the participants of this program. More specifically, for each training moment there was an increase in the self-assessed skills when compared to the previous one. Except for very specific cases, which did not show statistically significant improvement from one moment to the next, there was a consistent improvement over training moments.
It is important to notice the overall improvement: the aggregate score of the first moment (before training) was 10.4 and the final aggregate score (after the last training moment) was 12.6. . This shows an improvement of approximately 21% during the course of the program. A 21% improvement in the aggregate of such fundamental skills, through the participation in just 3 training moments is a relevant increase that needs to be taken seriously. It is possible to affirm that during the course of this project, participants experienced a significant improvement in their self-assessed skills, supporting the hypothesis that participants developed essential skills throughout the training cycle.
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Hypothesis 2
There is a correlation between an individual's performance in their professional life and the training cycle, thereby providing insights into the reliability and validity of the proposed methodology.
In order to test hypothesis 2, participants were subject to external assessments in the implementation of field works in their professional contexts. Pearson Correlations were used, as this method is used to quantify the strength and direction of a linear relationship between two continuous variables.
In order to measure possible correlations, the self-assessment changes in the previous section were compared towards changes in field work external assessments scores. In essence, there was a correlation of changes for each moment available. Professional Education participants were the only ones considered for these analysis, as they were the only ones subjected to external assessment.
The following correlations were assessed:
Correlation between the change post training 1 to post training 2 with the change from fieldwork 1 to fieldwork 2
This correlation aimed to test whether there is a correlation between the skill improvements observed between the first and second trainings and the external assessment changes between the first and second fieldworks.
Correlation between the change post training 2 to post training 3 with the change from fieldwork 2 to fieldwork 3
This correlation aimed to test whether there is a correlation between the skill improvements observed between the first and second trainings and the external assessment changes between the first and second fieldworks.
Method of analysis
Each of these comparisons was made for the change of each of the eight key skills, as well as for the aggregate score across all skills. The goal was to evaluate whether the changes in participants’ self-perceptions of their skill levels, after each training, were correlated to the changes in the external assessment of their skills, observed in the implementation of field works in their professional contexts, for the different stages of the training program. changed significantly across the different stages of the training program.
Pearson Correlations were run to assess the presence of significant correlations between the changes for each skill and aggregate score between the training self-assessments and the field work external assessments. For each test, the null hypothesis (that there is no correlation between these assessments) was tested against the alternative hypothesis (that there is a significant correlation). If statistically significant correlations are found for each comparison, it points to the fact that improvements in the self-assessed skills developed during the trainings, translate to the implementation of field works in the participants’ professional contexts, supporting hypothesis 2.
Results for Hypothesis 2
For all Pearson correlations assessed, not a single significant relationship was found between the changes in self-assessed skills and the changes in external assessed skills observed in the field works (Consult Annex with Pearson Correlation results).
Discussion of Results Hypothesis 2
There may be several different explanations to account for the lack of significant correlations being found in this study.
Competing explanations:
No effect: Firstly, and the most straightforward one, is that the hypothesis simply is not supported by data. That, in fact, the self-assessed skills developed during the trainings, do not translate to the participants’ professional contexts. This is a possibility that needs to be considered. However, considering the participant testimonials presented later in the report, it is important to consider other possibilities that could explain this pattern of data.
Small sample size: The sample size of the Pearson Correlations was extremely small, considering that only Professional Education participants were subjected to external assessments. According to statistical power/sample size calculators, in order to find a moderate correlation (r > 0.4), considering standard assumptions, a sample size of 62 participants is required, which wasn’t the case. This indicates that, unless there was an extremely strong correlation that with the current sample size, it would not be possible to assess whether there is a significant correlation between participants’ performance in their professional life and the training cycle.
Different assessment methodologies: It is also possible that the utilization of different assessment methodologies - self and external assessment - leads to different components of the skill being assessed, which could lead to the appearance that the changes were not correlated. In fact, despite the underlying utilization of a common framework - Skillsbuilder - with a clear operationalization of the building blocks of each skill it is very likely that the way that a participant self-assesses doesn’t exactly match the way that external assessors evaluate the manifestation of these skills. This possibility brings the question? Is there one of these methodologies (self vs. external) that is better than the other? Or are they complementary in the sense that they observe different components of each skill?
This study protocol had to conform to very specific implementation challenges that limited our ability to develop the most rigorous assessment methodologies possible. However, considering the promising results regarding hypothesis 1, and the fact that a robust longitudinal methodology was used, it is important to consider how to proceed further and how future protocols could mitigate specific limitations of this study.
Sample Size (Limitation): While the sample size concerning hypothesis 1 was sufficient to identify statistically significant improvements in self-assessed skill development, this was not the case for the comparison to external assessments. A very clear way to address this limitation is to extend the protocol of external assessment to different programs and, consequently, to more participants. Additionally, larger sample sizes will allow us to draw conclusions from different demographic variables. Are the effects felt the same way for different sexes, age groups or nationalities?
Lack of Control Group (Limitation): In addition to the sample size, this program did not include a control group. The comparison of the effects of an intervention to control groups are the gold standards to measure the effectiveness of any intervention, from medicine to psychology. In this specific case, it is not unreasonable to consider that any individual, even if they do not participate in trainings will have a baseline improvement in their skill development. This means that the improvement observed in the participants of this program should be compared to this baseline improvement, at the risk of overestimating the impact of this particular training program. It is also possible that there is not a baseline improvement in skills and that the impact of this training is being accurately estimated. However, for now, in the absence of a control group, that is still to be determined.
Assessment Methodologies - External vs. Self (Limitation): It is possible that self and external assessments are evaluating different components of the skills being measured. While this aspect points to the importance of considering both these types of assessments in the youth work environment (which usually only relies on self-assessment), it begets a clearer definition of what each type of assessment actually measures. The present program attempted to do this by utilizing a universal skills framework, creating a common ground by which different types of assessments would be based on. However, some questions arise. Considering that a self-assessor can base their evaluation on a very broad experience of these skills on their professional lives, external assessors are only basing their evaluation on a narrow assessment window. Furthermore, some skills, by definition are more observable than others. For example, it seems to be much easier to observe whether someone has good “Speaking” skills, than whether someone is capable of “Staying Positive”. From this, next projects should aim to have a clear protocol when it comes to defining how the external assessment should be conducted. This will help harmonize the results and creating a clearer picture of these kinds of assessments.
Longitudinal Aspect (Strength): It is often the case that training programs do not have the ability to measure their impact in the medium/long term. Most trainings only evaluate their immediate impact on participants. However, the importance of assessing whether the impacts of a training are maintained and evolve over time cannot be understated. One of the main ways to know this, is by conducting longitudinal studies, which consist in examining changes in the participants over a period of time. This was a longitudinal study, where participants were assessed in a period of time over one year. This is what allowed us to identify trendlines of skill development in a clear and robust way;
Unified Framework (Strength): Despite the assessment aspects mentioned before, a strength of this project lies in the utilization of a unified skills framework. This framework was utilized by every single participant to conduct their self-assessment and by each external assessor to conduct the external assessments. This allowed to create a basis for a common understanding of the skills being developed and assessed. A particular aspect that is worthy of note is the operationalization of the concepts. For each skill, there were 15 clearly determined components that were agreed upon, based on the Skillsbuilder Framework. Additionally, this specific Framework, due to its Universal approach, is able to capture the broad range of skills that are needed and developed in the field of youth work. In our view, the utilization of this framework was a clear strength of this program and more attention should be given to it, as a means to measure, develop and report skills in this field, as an alternative to currently available options.

Qualitative Research and its Findings

Impact research on the field of youth work and trainings include particular challenges.
In ProfessionalED we also had several, out of two were major and led us to conduct the qualitative part as well:
The small size of the sample;
The long term impact (5-10 years), that might be there, does not fit into the time frame of Erasmus+ KA2 project.
We aimed to support the quantitative results with interviews. We randomly chose one representative from each country from where we had participants go through the whole cyle. We had 1 female and 3 male to have an interview with.
We chose the semi-structured interview technique: 5 questions were set that were covering the hypothesis. It is also important to claim that interviews have their own specific distorting feature based on the impressions of the people conducting them.
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Hypothesis 1
Participants’ of ProfessionalED project developed essential skills throughout the training cycle.
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Hypothesis 2
There is a correlation between an individual's performance in their professional life and the training cycle. (It is a known fact that they work in the field of youth.)
The subjects of the interview are chosen randomly. They participated in all 3 training courses, did the assessment cycle (self- and assisted) throughout the field work as well and fulfilled the criteria to join the project (working on the field of youth).
Questions:
What do you think about the training courses?
What do you think you could have learnt/developed by participating in the ProfessionalED training cycle?
How do you think the self-assessment influenced your learning process?
How do you think the assisted(external) assessment influenced your learning process?
Do you use anything learnt throughout the learning cycle in your professional life? If yes, what and how?
Do you use anything learnt throughout the learning cycle in your personal life? If yes, what and how?
Are you going to further use Skills Builder in your personal or professional life?
Anything else you would like to say?
The interviews were conducted online, with durations ranging from 45 to 80 minutes. Participants in the ProfessionalED project were generally enthusiastic about participating, and three out of four explicitly expressed gratitude for the opportunity to be involved. This positive attitude likely influenced the tone of the interviews. Only one participant maintained a more neutral stance.
It's important to note that the interviewer and participants were already professionally acquainted and shared a common understanding of the ProfessionalED project. This prior relationship facilitated communication during the interviews.
After the interviews were recorded, they were transcribed and coded. Since both the interviewer and participants were familiar with the ProfessionalED project, the coding process was informed by their shared knowledge and professional experience. The coding was performed using Dedoose, and the analysis was carried out using both Dedoose and Excel.
The codes and their applications in all the interviews:
communication: 4
community: 4
complexity: 7
consistency, repetition
cultural differences: 1
enjoyment: 1
facilitation: 7
program design
long term impact
moderately useful
not useful
personal development: 14
attitude
emotional intelligence: 3
emotions: 4
getting to know myself
self-confidence: 1
self-reflection: 9
vulnerability: 2
put into practice: 11
practical tools: 5
using tools: 2
relationships
safe space: 2
social
social skills
strong impact
transformative: 2
using Skills Builder: 2
A key theme that emerged from the interviews was the emphasis on personal development as the most valuable and defining aspect of the participants' experience. They described it as the strongest and most crucial outcome of their involvement in the project.
Participants also highlighted that the learning experience was more impactful than any previous training, primarily due to its consistency and the continuity of the training courses.
“And I think even the elements, the three elements are quite deep and complex”
“But I was really amazed at how complex the experience is. Yeah, just really complex. So, I'm really happy.”
“Generally that we could have more time in a longer period and that we have been given a time to do also our practices in our own environment in time, so we can actually apply what we learned in every stage”

“I think this scale project in more phases really helps”
All of them shared that they use tools in their work and they have an impact in their personal lives as well.
“(...) in every aspect of my life it moved me a lot.”
They also mentioned that the core group, the community that was built from the beginning, brought them safety and meeting each other was something to look forward to.
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Hypothesis 1
All of them shared concrete skills and competence development, mainly: communication, team work, creativity.
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Hypothesis 2
The quantitative analysis did not reveal any significant correlations, and several factors were discussed to explain this (see the previous chapter). However, in the interviews, all participants, without exception, reported actively using the tools and knowledge gained from the training courses. They noted that these new skills have improved the quality of their work and are regularly applied in their daily tasks, adding value to their professional performance.
“I could use it as soon as I got home”
It is still worth mentioning that personal development is more emphasized and important in their experience.
“huge effect on my personal relationships”
“vulnerability, sharing about emotions and communication”
“And I'm thankful and I'm motivated. And I was even happy to talk about it.”
“it was a very important experience in my life. I could really, really open myself up for new opportunities, and I'm still doing that.”
The holistic approach, which views professional and personal development as interconnected, was reflected in participants' responses. They shared how their personal growth contributed to their professional development, demonstrating the mutual influence between the two.
“Sometimes you have to stop, reflect, realize, become more aware and then work again. And this can also help people to start to realize their own skills and also to realize, okay, maybe I need to put some limits because. I think it can be really useful in our organization (...)”

Reality of youth work in the partner countries - Desk research and its findings

Hungary

About Egyesek
Egyesek Youth Association is the coordinator of ProfessionalED project. We initiated to establish the consortium to carry out such a project based on our more than 20 years of experience, successes, failures and doubts, questions gathered.
We contribute to build communities where people are aware of their own freedom of choice, they do what they love and connect with each other peacefully. Egyesek Youth Association is a community of active youth and young professionals.
The aim of our activities is that – we, young people – explore our own strengths and resources using them consciously to fulfill our personal and professional life. To reach that we do trainings and volunteer activities. We enable active young people, informal groups, NGOs and social enterprises to write their own projects and grant applications. We are doing grass-root outreach youth work as well as running our own youth community center.
We are supporting local communities based on our own experiences by transforming their passion into the way to make the change happen.
ProfessionalED was initiated as a compilation of our knowledge together with partners who provide high quality youth work and trainings in this field. Our goal was to test, check, measure the impact of our methods that we have been practicing and improving for more than 10 years now and make it available for anyone who would like to use the elements of it.
Furthermore, we wished to show the impact so that we would be able to increase the recognition of our work in other fields, for other stakeholders.
Thus, this research report was one of the main elements of our project. Before, we used to have our own questionnaires and Youthpass as evaluation and self-assessment tools to use to see if there was any impact, development after our training programs in terms of skills. We intended to find a tool that is evidence based and acknowledged internationally and in the same time it can reflect on development in a non formal educational environment.
If you wish to get to know more details about the research or you have any questions after reading it, please feel free to contact us.
The reality in Hungary
In Hungary the National Youth Strategy belongs to the Ministry of Culture and Innovation and the strategy is in line with the European Youth Strategy. One of its objectives is to support youth work and youth organizations. There is no independent national strategy for youth work. In fact there is a limited amount of national funds that organizations can get and according to the statistics of the Erasmus+ National Agency (Tempus Public Foundation) the number of applications for youth projects is rapidly growing.
In Hungary, there is no official definition of youth work. In more recent Government documents, youth work is often understood in the context of municipal coordination (after the change of the name of the education programme), but the EU terminology of youth work appears more and more frequently in policy discourses, following the strategic documents.
In terms of higher education, at Hungarian universities there is a specialization to study “Youth Community Coordination” under the major of Community Coordination BA. This is a relatively recent possibility and available only in a few universities.
As a recent study showed, 42% of the people who work in the field of youth work (meaning work with young people out of the formal education system as a main job) has a formal educational background that is connected to youth work and it is not necessarily the above mentioned diploma.

Italy

About IBO
IBO Italia is an NGO operating in the field of international volunteering since 1957.
Their mission is to promote the access to education and learning as fundamental rights and opportunities for the growth and wellbeing of the whole community, and to involve young people in volunteering and solidarity projects, to foster social commitment, participation and responsibility.
IBO's three main fields of intervention are:
International Cooperation: local development projects in Eastern Europe, Africa, and Latin America (Peru, Tanzania, Burundi, Ukraine, Romania), promoting an inclusive and equitable quality education.
Global Citizenship Education and awareness raising activities for students and youngsters.
STV, LMTV projects in Italy and abroad: workcamps, ESC and Civil Service projects, especially involving young people, in order to make them an active and aware part of society. Mobility projects and inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities.
IBO Italia is a member of the European network “IBO Internationale”, of CCIVS and the Alliance of European Voluntary Service Organizations. It’s a partner of FOCSIV – Italian federation of NGOs. Its headquarters are located in Ferrara and Parma (Italy), Lima (Peru), Iringa (Tanzania).
IBO has solid experience in coordinating activities for young people: since 1957, they promote volunteering and community service projects. They believe that non-formal learning experiences are fundamental to sensitize the younger generations to meet others, to encourage their personal, professional and educational development, to foster intercultural exchange and understanding.
IBO has long-term experience in the management of youth projects. Since the 1950s, IBO Italia has organized international workcamps (2-4 weeks) both in Italy and abroad. Each year IBO coordinates a number of about 400 volunteers, mainly young people, offering them the possibility to live short-term volunteering experiences, taking care of their recruitment, preparation, sending, management of hosting, communication, final evaluation and dissemination of their experiences. In the framework of Erasmus+ programme, IBO took part in several Youth Exchange projects.
The organization has activated more than 20 partnerships within the Italian Voluntary Civil Service programme in different countries (e.g. India, Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya, Romania, Ukraine, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru); this Italian programme gives to young people between 18 and 30 years old the possibility to spend one year in a voluntary project. It is an opportunity of personal and professional growth through a real contribution to the social, economic and cultural development of an area. IBO Italia is responsible for recruiting volunteers, pre-departure and final training, evaluation and dissemination of the projects’ results.
IBO staff therefore has a solid experience:
in the recruitment, selection, training and management of long-term volunteers/youth workers in at risk/complex contexts (especially in the framework of the Italian Civil Service program);
in the collaboration with a pool of experienced trainers;
in training for camp leaders, group leaders, teachers, in Italy and in our local development projects abroad; combining formal and non formal education and different methodologies.
The reality in Italy
In Italy there is not yet a legislative framework for youth work as a specific form of voluntary or professional work aimed at young people. However, a diversified set of socio-educational practices carried out mainly at a local level by the Third Sector can be included in the general category of youth work as defined at a European level. Given the growing interest in Italy towards youth work understood from a European perspective, a draft framework law for the recognition of youth work as a sector and as a profession is currently being discussed at a national level. In this law, the term youth work is translated as “Socio-educational animation for young people”.
The forms of youth work promoted and supported by the State mainly include socio-educational work in youth centers (e.g. Youth Aggregation Centres, multipurpose centers for minors with the function of social protection and risk prevention, youth spaces created thanks to property reuse projects and urban regeneration), educational experiences in camps and summer holiday stays for teenagers, orientation and information services provided by the Informagiovani centers, study support (e.g. educational support groups), and educational and training aimed at young people engaged in volunteering projects supported by the Universal Civil Service.
Competence in the field of youth work is attributed mainly to the Regions and Autonomous Provinces within the framework of their respective laws and youth policy measures.
In recent years, the first informal and associative networks have been created between operators who recognize themselves as 'youth workers' from a European perspective (e.g. the Youth Worker Italia network and the NINFEA association - National Informal and Non-formal Education Association) .
Some Regions (Campania, Piedmont and Puglia) have recently recognized at a legislative level the need to launch specific training actions for youth workers. The use of the word “youth worker” in the Italian text of these regional laws denotes a specific interest in starting to frame this figure in the policy framework built to date at a European level.
Many people who work in practice as youth workers come from study courses such as Educational Sciences, a three-year degree offered by most public universities which allows those who graduate to work across a broad spectrum in the social sector (communities for disadvantaged categories, aggregation, social services, school support, home-based educational services, disabilities), without however a specialization that focuses on working with young people but with the most vulnerable groups in general.
Among the first training initiatives in the field of youth work we can mention the master’s degree “Youth Worker. Expert in educational and animation activities with young people”, promoted by the National Youth Agency (AIG) and offered by the Suor Orsola Benincasa University of Naples (implemented until the 2020-2021 academic year, currently not active), together with a growing number of seminars, conferences and discussion tables on the topic of youth work organized from the NA, the associative world, local authorities and universities.
A Working Group on Youth Work
In 2022, the Working Group was established for the first time in Italy thanks to the National Agency, to support the recognition of the figure of the socio-educational animator, or Youth Worker, also to follow up on the conclusions set out in the "final declaration of Bonn".
It is the result of a shared process, which took into account the requests of the participants and which aims to enhance, recognize and support the pedagogical-educational role of youth sector professionals and that of the "community of practices" which has been created over the years also thanks to the European programs Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps.
The Group is aimed at in-depth study and analysis of the figure of the Youth Worker with particular reference to the national context, in order to develop action plans and strategies to be shared in the appropriate European fora.
The Working Group is chaired by the Director of the National Youth Agency and is made up of the members identified through an expression of interest as well as the members of the Community of practices for youth work which took part in the month of December 2020 in the Third European Convention on Youth Work, plus representatives of the National Youth Agency and the Department for Youth Policies and Universal Civil Service as stakeholders. Members are not entitled to allowances, attendance fees or compensation.
The Working Group also aims to contribute to the existing debate relating to the identification of key competences of the youth worker, taking into account the corresponding education and training framework, as well as the system used to recognize and certify the competences acquired through practice, in a widely participatory context that takes inspiration directly from the sector and the experience of the professionals involved.
Involvement in ProfessionalED
IBO's expectations in being part of the project consortium were:
to collaborate with organizations with greater experience in the field of youth work, training and facilitation;
to formulate strategies for personal and professional growth and loyalty of group leaders, camp leaders and trainers who collaborate with IBO;
to create or strengthen a network of new people who could collaborate or are interested in collaborating with IBO through a quality training proposal.
Thanks to the participation in ProfessionalED, they have experimented and known in depth a training course for trainers and facilitators which could be the basis of a proposal that maintains the fundamental elements present in this curriculum, but which can adapt to the characteristics of the IBO projects and of the community that animates the association's initiatives.
IBO intend to exploit and enhance this opportunity to structure training proposals that have a local impact, enhancing as much as possible the presence of the project participants and the skills they have acquired.
Furthermore, we aim to share the project results and the path undertaken with public and private formal educational institutions, launching a proposal that complements and integrates academic training with an experiential path (for example, the department of educational sciences of the University of Ferrara, the University of Bologna).
The group of participants selected from IBO in the frame of ProfED project was initially made up of seven people, five of whom participated in all the planned stages. The profile of the seven participants is very heterogeneous in terms of age, nationality, study path and previous experiences in the field of facilitation and youth work.
The range of ages involved corresponds to the 20-45 year range, and two of the participants, regularly resident in Italy, come from Romania and Senegal, while another person has dual Italian and German citizenship, living in between the two states. The other four Italian participants come all from different regions (north, center and south Italy). Four participants have a degree in humanistic studies, of which three in the educational and pedagogical field. One person started the ProfED path during the second year of university in Psychology, and two others have secondary education studies, with a professional orientation.
Five of the participants worked during the ProfED path (and currently as well) in the educational and social field, within different realities, in particular in contact with young people and international volunteers.
For most of the participants, apart from one, it was the first experience in the context of training financed by the Erasmus + programme, some of them having mainly participated in volunteering experiences (workcamps, youth exchanges, ESC mobility) or other international experiences not financed by Erasmus+.
Two of the participants collaborate with IBO as members of the staff (an employed worker and a collaborator) and one of them had the double role of participant and member of the project team.

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