YOCOMO - Designing Programmes behaviours - European Training Strategy

Designing programmes

…involves a good understanding of the different groups and environments that youth workers operate in. This precondition is essential to being able to develop and design programmes, whether they have an explicit educational purpose or not. Youth workers apply non-formal learning values and principles in the programmes and respond to the needs and realities of young people, which are more complex in an international context. This competence area includes, implicitly, an awareness of how designing programmes can involve addressing political, societal, technological and cultural issues in youth work and how it can be opened up to the wider community.

The single behaviours are summarised in different headlines that illustrate what “designing programmes” means for youth workers behaviour-wise. The “cluster headlines” do not name behaviours as such; these can be found through clicking on the lists.

Youth workers apply the principles of non-formal learning which are at the heart of designing programmes. + -

These are:

learner-/youth-centredness
transparency
democratic values
participation
empowerment
social transformation

Youth workers do learner-centered work + -

This implies that they:

assess and consider young people’s needs before or at the beginning of the activity (and adjust the programme if needed)
provide opportunities for young people to be involved in designing the programme
look at young people in a holistic way, meaning they see the individuals as a whole, taking into account feelings, thoughts and experiences
maximise opportunities in programme planning for young people so that they can connect to others that have different values

Youth workers both work towards aims and objectives of a project and critically evaluate them. + -

Therefore, they:

monitor the objectives of the activity
are willing to challenge the values behind the programmes

Consider ‘surprises’ as part of the flow of processes. + -

Thus, youth workers show readiness to:

deal with programme-related ambiguity
deal with unexpected elements and dimensions that influence the programme and its development

Youth workers need to show agility and pro-actively include the digital dimension when designing programmes. + -

This means that youth workers

apply GDPR regulations
critically reflect on copyright rules and issues, applying a diverse set of methods to ensure authors’ rights are respected (copyleft, creative commons, etc.)
apply a do-it-yourself approach to technologies (e.g. ‘maker’s culture’) promoting self-repairing, tinkering and enhancing one’s own devices and technologies

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