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

The needs and backgrounds of the learners influence the design of programmes. + -

This requires the ability to:

identify and analyse young people’s needs
assess, analyse and take account of the contexts of young people and their community in order to develop an appropriate educational approach

Non-formal learning programmes need to foster learners’ motivation and engagement. + -

Skills in this context are:

develop meaningful programmes that motivate and engage young people
involve the learners in developing the programme according to their needs
adjust the educational approach to the needs of the young people

The diversity that groups represent requires further skills from youth workers. + -

These skills would allow youth workers to:

work with and on different values through a variety of (learning) approaches
create an environment that enables young people to stand in solidarity with people who may hold different values, beliefs and world views

It is desirable that programmes also have an impact on communities and social environments. + -

The skills required for taking such aspects into account can be:

to encourage and empower young people to recognise if and when the need exists for solidarity in the local community and to act on it
to include activities in the community during and after the project for wider impact, including hybrid and blended learning formats

Additionally, research and other concepts may influence the work of youth workers. + -

They benefit from skills to:

adjust approaches and methods based on (youth) research outcomes
identify needs and realities deriving from research and societal, political and technological developments that may influence the practice of youth workers

The digital dimension also requires skills. + -

Such as:

integrating digital tools, media and environments in the activities where needed and beneficial

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