From youth work to Youth@Work: The potential of youth work to boost young people’s employability and entrepreneurship

Youth employability and entrepreneurship have in the past decade become policy priorities in a wide range of fields as a response to the challenges young people face in the contemporary labour market. The role of youth work in supporting young people in this area has been much debated. On one hand, youth work can evidently help young people to develop a variety of competences and empower them to make a positive change in many areas of their lives, which inarguably also predicts a better position for them in the labour market. On the other hand, it is also argued that young people’s challenges in the world of work are rooted in structural and systemic factors, which should be addressed otherwise.

The seminar explores the potential of youth work to create a positive change as a part of the youth employability and entrepreneurship ecosystem. The emphasis is on how youth work, in particular by fostering the development of young people’s competences, contribute to their better access and fulfilment in the world of work. A special focus is on the impact and recognition of youth work in this role in the Western Balkan Partner Countries, but at the same time, finding synergies with the relevant developments and initiatives in other countries and setting up spaces for networking and cooperation.

The activity is a part of Youth@Work transnational strategic cooperation between the Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps National Agencies and SALTO Resource Centres in the area of youth employability and entrepreneurship ( https://youthatworkpartnership.org/ )

The seminar will take place in Durres, near Tirana – Albania, the European Youth Capital in 2022. The programme of activities provides opportunities to get to know youth work realities connected to the topic of the seminar in the frame of the Tirana European Youth Capital 2022.

The objectives of the seminar are:

• To explore relevant concepts and frameworks connected to the topic, in particular the “EntreComp”, the European Union’s entrepreneurship competence framework and the role youth work therein;
• to discover the potential and unravel the dilemmas of youth employability and entrepreneurship in the participants’ local contexts;
• to exchange good practices of youth work enhancing young people’s employability and entrepreneurship;
• to provide space for networking among stakeholders from different countries for further collaboration on this topic, specifically in the context of the Erasmus+ Programme and European Solidarity Corps.

The seminar gathers 25 participants from the Erasmus+ Programme Countries and Western Balkan Partner Countries in Tirana, Albania. The target group of the activity consists of different stakeholders within the youth employability and entrepreneurship ecosystems connected to, or alternatively interested in developing connection with, youth work, such as youth work practitioners, teachers, educators, municipal policy-makers, representatives of political youth.

The seminar will be consisted of inputs, discussions, workshops, local visits and other activities focusing on the participants as the main resource of expertise and exchange, but also providing insight, inspiration and information by the team and external contributors on the topic and the related developments in the European level.