Youth workers need …

to have the competences, i.e. knowledge, skills, attitudes and values, necessary for carrying out youth work in accordance with the principles and actions described in this Charter.

Competence could be defined as your ability to use your knowledge and skills in order to achieve set aims, and where ability consists of motivation and attitudes. This means that youth worker education and training as well as further competence development need to focus on all these factors in order to be successful – it should develop motivation and attitudes as well as knowledge, skills and the understanding of to what end these should be used.

The possible competences needed range from social pedagogic skills, over digital skills, to project management and they can, together with many more, be found through the references below. However, the basic competence will always be the ability to stimulate and support young people to engage in and take responsibility for activities that are based on their own needs, interests, ideas and experiences, thus contributing to their personal and social development through non-formal and informal learning.

Bulletpoint illustration thumbs up
  1. Discuss & assess
    Here you find the questions you need to ask yourself to know if you need to develop and the assessment function
  2. Set objectives
    Here you describe what you want to achieve.
  3. Needs
    Here you describe what you need to acquire, develop or change.
  4. Actions to take
    Here you describe the actions you plan to take.

Remember! Development is far from always a linear process! It needs to start with discussions,​ but the first ‘Action to take’ might be to gather more knowledge before setting aims for development and deciding on further actions to take. Dare to be both flexible and to take one step back before taking two steps forward!

References & tips