"Youth work in Europe is diverse in its definitions as well as forms and practices. In the context of growing diversity of practices on the one hand, and calls for quality standards and professionalisation on the other, the universities have to make their decisions for offering relevant training.In this context, the focus of the current project is to look at the development of youth work degree programmes as a key factor in successful training of professional youth workers. Under programme development, the project understands the overall design of the study process, the choice of the grounding values and theories, pedagogies, course structure, role of theoretical and practical component, etc.Within the frames of the project:experience exchangeand discussion at different levelsraised the question of the uniqueness of learning and approaches to learning.The project involved more than 400 people from different countries, including 47 authors of the intellectual output book from 5 countries.The following project objectives have been achieved:-1 intellectual output has been delivered: the project resulted in development of the reference book ""Teaching youth work in higher education : tensions, connections, continuities and contradictions"" about curriculum development. The book represents a comparative analysis of the programmes of the partner universities. In the process of conducting of the analysis and writing of the book the project partners raised and discussed the issue of uniqueness of the phenomenon of learning and the choice of the corresponding approaches to learning;-1 international conference has been organized. The conference was held at the final stage of the project, and the main aim of the event was to introduce and disseminate the intellectual output. The aim was achieved, the conference was participated by 176 people. The presentations and experience exchange within the frames of the conference also initiated a discussion on the practices of youth work training in Europe and allowed the representatives of the European youth work community to introduce and explain their outlooks on the pre- and in-service training of youth workers;-4 international project meetings have been held. These meetings provided the project partners with possibilities to get an insight into one another’s youth worker training practices and to find common ground for, firstly, identifying the areas of cooperation and, secondly, for determining and specifying the project activities and their content;-2 round table discussions with policymakers and key stakeholders have been held. The aim of these discussions was to draw attention to the project as such and to the area of youth worker training in general. The Estonian and Finnish presidency in the Council of the EU was the context that the project partners benefitted from in drawing international attention to issues and practices of training of youth work specialists. The total number of the participants in the 2 round table discussions was 40;-1 information dissemination seminar has been held. The aim of the seminar was to introduce the intellectual output. The seminar took place in the UK and was attended by 51 specialists in the area of youth work;-2 sessions of smaller events for local stakeholders have been held. Involvement at the local level has had a sufficient impact on achievement of the project objectives, as project partners are unlikely to be comprehensible at the European and international levels in the situation of misunderstanding and lack of support at the local level. Based on the above-said, it can be concluded that the project results have been achieved confidently. The international experience exchange among the project partners has made it possible to distinguish the issue of uniqueness of youth workers training and to raise the issue at the European level. The International project meetings, round table discussions and the final conference of the project have been an efficient platform for discussion and the search for common solutions regarding youth work in Europe. The intellectual output of the project – the reference book – is a content-rich source of information about youth work practices and an in-depth analysis of the diversity of approaches to pre-service training of specialists in the area of youth work. This material is to have a long-term impact both on the training and research in the area of youth work and it has already attracted a lot of positive attention."

The importance and quality of youth work has been highly prioritised in the EU youth agenda since 2013. The task to prepare professional qualified youth workers lies largely on the HEIs and their study programmes. The quality of the practical experiences, including work placement, the skills of self reflection and analysis, determine the actual preparation of the student to become a qualified youth worker with a professional identity.The Project address the issue of the quality of practical experiences in the preparation of youth workers by the HEIs. The objectives of the Project are 1) to exchange and analyse existing practices of organising practice in Youth Work study programmes in Estonia, Finland and the UK, and 2) build a closer network within the new partnership for future cooperation.The main activities carried out in the Project are four meetings for the Project Team. The aim of the meetings is run intensive workshops and hold study visits to the partner organisations. The 12 participants, forming the Project Team, are all programme managers and key decision makers in developing the youth work studies in their organisations. As a result of the Project, 1) the participants have a thorough comparative knowledge of the partners' Youth Work programmes, 2) each partner has an Action Plan for using the gained knowledge in programme development; and, 3) the partners have agreed on a further cooperation framework. The impact of the Project, foreseen upon its completion, is in the actual changes/improvements in the practice/placement organisation in the Youth Work programmes of the partners. In the longer term, the Project has a potential positive impact on the quality of youth work through the improved practical component of the Youth Work study programmes.

The partner organizations have for many years been developing new models of cooperation between Organizations, youth services and research, aiming to use the synergy to further develop Services for youth and improve their quality. Some of the partner organisations (and respective countries) have broad experience in bottom-up participation processes where youth play an important role in decision-making within youth clubs. Others are more guided by policy priorities or research / evidences. Regardless of the basis, different points of view, all partners had something to contribute with and to learn from each other.The partners saw a need for establishing a network that could provide international exchange of knowledge and experience on the field of Youth Work. The initiative to this project came from Norwegian youth leaders, who saw that the UK approach to youth work, was focused on social work and that they have a tradition in the youth fields that goes back 150 years. The Norwegian youth work has its’ strength in the emphasis on inclusion of young people in the management of the youth clubs, and the “soft” approach to youth clubs, youth clubs are youth-governed places where youth develop constructive cultural activities in order to grow as human beings.Once the network was established, participants from the Nordic countries initiated several meeting points such as conferences and seminars. The content has been focused on the development of youth services, and youth policies, and the goal has been to strengthen the link between education and practical youth work.The link between the Nordic countries and the Baltic countries, has been strengthened over the last years, as a result of both Nordic and European political policies. The Baltic countries has also taken steps to start up a pan-baltic research network which was established in 2014. In Lithuania, politicians have seen the need for a development of social services, particularly towards youth. Lithuania are developing arenas for non- formal learning for youth in order to ensure the well- being of the youth population. As a result, new youth centers are established all over Lithuania. During several meetings in the Nordic research network, we have also gained a partner from Newman university college in UK. Newman is one of 8 universities in England that offers both a BA and MA in youth work.Together, the partnership wanted to publish an academic journal that aimed to privilege the narrative of youth work practice, methodology and reality, in a context of academia. The objectives of this project was:- To create an arena for peer reviewing and development of research;- To offer a channel for implementation of methods and models for youth work;- To give voice to youth workers in political / policy issues;- To enhance systems for the education – policy – practice triangleThe project support education and training systems. It promotes youth and innovation, exchange of experience and know-how between different types of organizations involved in education, training and youth or in other relevant fields. The partners in this cooperation are:Newman University, UK; Politikos tyrimų ir analizės institutas, Lithuania;Stockholms Universitet/University of Stockholm, Sweden (later changed to Malmo university);Haskoli Islands/University of Iceland, Iceland;POYWE (NGO), European network based in Austria;Ungdom og Fritid (NGO), Norway. Description of undertaken main activities:There have been three study-visits, sharing and co-writing courses where Youth Workers and academics have gathered to start the process of writing together. Everyone have gotten an introduction to how to write, peer-review and what are the aims of the journal. The three courses have been taking place in Birmingham, UK (September 2015), Reykjavik, Iceland (May 2016) and Vilnius, Lithuania (January 2017). Additionally, partners have met on the separate occasion (not within this KA2 project) for co-writing training course in Vilnius, Lithuania (January 2016) to further build the competencies and include to additional countries- Latvia and Romania into the scope of Academic journal. Culmination of this project was international conference on Open Youth Work together with the launch of the international journal in Vilnius, January 2017. Results and impact attained:First, the main result of this project is the international journal of Open Youth Work - which provides a huge amount of knowledge about different approaches to youth work, the political settings where youth workers find themselves and the history of Youth work. This will have a broader impact on the entire field of youth work, both for practitioner, academics and politicians. We have managed to create a journal that is different, by showing the voices of the youth workers through an academic context. This will contribute to improve the status of open youth work. Also, it marks / defines new field of research.

"Mapping professional open youth work (in Europe)The project created a strategic partnership for working on underlying principles and concrete tools for mapping professional open youth work in Europe as of today. It gathered ten partners from nine different countries coming from diverse backgrounds - we managed to have partners from the non-formal and the formal education sector as well as grass root youth work and umbrella organisations. It gave this part of youth work the room for professional debate on the core profile of their work as well as some tools for online discussion and showcasing of professional open youth work. It therefore had two pillars that were closely linked to each other:1) Debate and Description of „Principles of Professional Open Youth Work in Europe“The partnership engaged in a very serious discussion about a common defintion and underlying principles of professional open youth work and worked on a document that would respect the various national and background realities and create a clearer profile of this profession in Europe. The result of this process is a ""Declaration of Principles"" which was published and disseminated in September 2016. Read more about the process and the result here: http://magazine.poywe.org/magazine/logbook-issue-3/mapping-a-profession/2) Online platform for debate, capacity building and dissemination of knowledge about professional open youth work in Europe consisting of:The LOGBOOK Platform that was created within this project aims on the one hand to enable exchange of experience and good practice and on the other hand on show casing what Professional Open Youth Work is and what effects it has in Europe today. For achieving this aim it features several things:a) The LOGBOOK E-Magazine was created and three editions were published during the project duration. It features descriptions of the state of the art of youth work in all participating countries, one hot topic per issue (1. radicalisation of young people and the role of open youth work, 2. professional open youth work and young refugees and 3. youth work as a profession), news and information about training, methods and interviews with young people and youth workers.b) A video channel with short videos that explain professional open youth work from different angles - currently there is 19 interviews with youth workers and experts from 12 countries.c) Debate and exchange of experience - to widen the debate we have also created a space for webinars, where we have discussed the final version of our declaration of principles with interested participants.Apart from this concrete results the project helped to build a stronger network of professional open youth work in Europe that is going to be active and in touch also after the end of this partnership. Several participants of the closing event announced that they will translate the ""Declaration of Principiles in their own languages for making it even more accesible for youth workers in their own country. The LOGBOOK Platform will stay and POYWE plans to keep publishing the E-Magazine, continue uploading video interviews that show what professional open youth work is doing and provide webinars for youth workers."