The partnership recognises that there is a need to digitalise youth work, specifically delivering digital youth work & upskilling youth workers’ digital competences. The concept of ‘SMART’ youth work recognises that digital media & technologies open great potential for youth empowerment, enriching opportunities for enhancing their personal capabilities & competences & providing opportunities for connectivity & interaction with others.The EU Commissions 2018 ‘Developing Digital Youth Work’ report focuses on the strategic development of digital youth work, calling for all member states to “provide strategic financial investment in digital youth work, allocating resources to youth worker training, development of innovative digital youth work methodologies, working time, infrastructure, & devices/technologies to be used with young people.Growing up the digital era, young people in Europe spend an increasing amount of their time consuming digital media & technology (video streaming, messaging, blogging, gaming, etc.) This can provide a place for young people to learn, to share their experiences, to exchange their views & to actively participate in society. However, within the youth sector, there is inadequate coverage of digital youth work delivery, despite recognition that technological developments open great potential for empowerment of youth, by enriching opportunities for enhancing their personal capabilities & competences & providing opportunities for connectivity & interaction with others. Likewise, dramatic youth unemployment & NEET figures, suggest a need to embrace tailored initiatives for youth entrepreneurship as a way out of unemployment, inactivity & social exclusion. Youth entrepreneurship is high on the EU political agenda as a tool to combat youth unemployment & social exclusion as well as stimulating innovation among young people. Yet, despite the high policy interest in youth entrepreneurship, only a small 6.5% of young people between the ages of 15 & 29 opted for self-employment (EuroStat, 2016).
Furthermore, in 2016 a total of 13.7 million young people were in neither employment nor education or training (NEETs). This in turn is creating significant economic & social issues across Europe such as high youth unemployment, disengagement among young people & failing economies. The Digitize Enterprise project will thus simultaneously target two issues; the insufficient integration of digital youth work & the lack of effective youth initiatives that foster young people’s entrepreneurship & employability competences. The Digitize Enterprise Project will address these policy recommendations, through the development of a toolkit of bespoke digital resources (101), targeted at youth practitioners to support the effective delivery of non-formal youth enterprise . The toolkits digital ‘learning nuggets’ will include a mix of resources (interactive games, infographic resources, podcasts, bite-sized eLearning videos, interactive case studies, business blogs) that can be integrated into existing youth work activities including group work, discussions, role plays & energizers . For young people, Digitize Enterprise will create The ‘Digitize Enterprise Virtual Learning Lab’ (102), an interactive game-based tool, designed to enable young people to take control of their own digital learning & entrepreneurial competency building. The learning lab will provide gamification and social engagement solutions to enable young people to influence and measure their own entrepreneurial and employability skills. The tool will provide a “digital motivation layer” to the gaming elements such as points and digital badges, allowing young people to build an e-portfolio overtime to showcase their skills and validate their accomplishments. The ‘players’ i.e. young people, will master various levels of ‘micro-challenges, a series of simulated exercises designed to create awareness around key principles of entrepreneurial and employability. Additionally, the ‘Digitize Enterprise’ professional development programme(103) will address the training needs of youth leaders, ensuring they have the skills & knowledge required to deliver digital youth work.
OBJECTIVES ‘Digitize Enterprise’ aims to collectively design, test & implement new digital tools & materials to foster youth enterprise skills & enhance the competences of youth-workers embrace digital youth work.
1. To create & pilot a ‘Digitize Enterprise Youth-Work Toolkit’ incorporating a suite of media-rich digital materials aimed at enriching the delivery of non-formal youth enterprise learning. 2. To develop & test a ‘Digitize Enterprise Virtual Learning Lab’, an interactive game-based tool, designed to enable young people to take control of their own digital learning & recognition. 3. To drive the delivery of digital youth work & upskilling of youth workers’ digital competences to support their motivation & capacity to implement smart youth work.
Duration: The Project runs for 31 months starting on 01/05/2019 and finishing on 30/11/2021.
The website of the project: www.digitizeenterprise.org
The Facebook page of the project: Click here
Project Number:2018-3-UK01-KA205-059966
The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.