The project "Digital leap in the field of youth" was completed on 29 December 2023. The project lasted from 1 March 2022 to 29 December 2023.
- 66 local governments were involved in the project.
- 207 youth workers were trained.
- 5 study materials were prepared for the e-koolikott.ee portal.
- A digital competence framework for youth workers and a digital maturity framework for youth work institutions were prepared, as well as relevant tools for evaluation.
- The study “The best foreign practices in the field of smart youth work and their applicability in Estonia” was completed.
Three directions of the project
Objectives
The project aims to increase the digital capabilities of the youth field, including a minimum of 48 local governments, by 2024:
1. to create and/or develop innovative and smart solutions for better performance in youth work (including e-participation opportunities);
2. to support and develop the digital competence of at least 100 youth workers through the development of a learning environment and thematic training;
3. to create the prerequisites for an informed digital leap of youth workers and local governments through adequate digital frameworks and evaluation models.
Grant details
- Project budget: 871,435 €
- Implementation period of project activities: 1 March 2022 – 30 April 2024
- Training a minimum of 100 youth workers
- Involving at least 48 local governments in project activities
- Project partners are Tallinn University and the Estonian Association of Youth Workers
- The project will result in a new e-participation method, a digital competence and maturity evaluation framework and evaluation tool, and training programmes.
Need for the project
The experiences of 2020 and 2021 in the development and implementation of youth work in the context of COVID-19 showed that the youth field has low capabilities, but a high level of readiness and motivation to systematically prepare for and adapt to digital changes and to tailor the services offered to the current situation. The purpose of youth work is to create conditions for young people’s varied personal development by enabling them to willingly participate in activities outside of family life, formal education and work. Accordingly, we need to significantly improve the methods through which we want to achieve today’s objectives and adapt them to the changed circumstances in which digital solutions are used by young people more than before, both in and out of school.
As a result of the project, specialists working with young people will be able to evaluate and develop their digital competences, as well as offer young people versatile opportunities to learn and develop based on future trends and contribute to the development of society (including digital transformation), both in their local government and across them.
The project is led by the Education and Youth Board (Harno), which implements the education and youth policy of Estonia based on national (Estonia 2035) and sectoral (both youth work and education) framework documents and development plans.
The launch event of the project ‘Digital leap in the field of youth’ took place on 31 May in the Öpiku Conference Centre, where the Department of Youth Affairs of the Education and Youth Board presented the project funded by the ‘Smart youth work solutions’ of the EEA and Norway Grants.
Presentations were delivered by Andres Sutt, Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology; Jaak Raie, Director General of the Education and Youth Board; Karin Künnapas, Head of kood/Jõhvi; and Roger Tibar, Project Manager of project ‘Digital leap in the field of youth’. A time traveller from 2030 also gave a speech on the future of the youth field. In line with the digital leap, the event was moderated by the virtual helper AIQ, making several participants smile and encouraging them to try out such innovative solutions for their own purposes as well.
The message of the event was that smart solutions are designed to make our work more efficient. It is important to ensure that stakeholders are informed throughout the implementation of the project and to design services in a way that benefits the end user. This makes inclusion one of the most important cornerstones in achieving our objectives.
See what a virtual host looks like and listen to the presentations from the launch event on Harno’s YouTube channel.
On 15 June, an interim seminar of the project ‘Digital leap in the field of youth’ took place in the Öpiku Conference Centre, where the Education and Youth Board, the Estonian Association of Youth Workers, Tallinn University and other partners gave an overview of the project’s previous activities, results and future directions. The main target group of the project comprises youth work specialists and youth workers of local governments, and the final target group is young people.
At the event, the Institute of Baltic Studies presented the newly published analysis ‘The applicability of video games in youth work’. See the analysis at the link below.
The analysis confirmed that video games have come into our society to stay – nearly half of young people play video games every day, be it for the purposes of entertainment or the development of social-emotional skills or imagination. The results of the analysis revealed that both youth workers and young people are prepared to use video games as a purposeful learning environment more than before. Young people confirmed that using video games in learning processes would make learning more attractive and interesting for them. The most popular games among young people are Roblox, Minecraft, GTA and Counter-Strike.
As there has recently been increasingly more talk about artificial intelligence, or the role of AI in today’s society, including youth work, the topic was covered in depth under the guidance of Markus Lippus, architect of machine learning solutions. There was collective reflection on whether and how AI could affect the performance of jobs that are directly related to interpersonal relationships and jobs that create social value.
If you are interested in the possibilities of using video games in youth work and want to know whether ‘AI is taking over the world’, watch the recording of the interim seminar on Harno’s YouTube channel.
With Tallinn University taking the lead, a comprehensive research report was prepared which provides an explanation of the background material and the need to create the frameworks and find tools for both youth workers and youth work institutions to evaluate digital competences and digital maturity. This report can be used to develop training programmes or set an individual milestone in the future, to understand one’s current stage of development and to think about further training needs depending on the results of self-evaluation.
The report is available in the e-koolikott.ee portal.
Five new bite-sized learning pieces were created within the scope of the project which, in the form of a short video of approximately 10 minutes and some concise materials for reading, provide the necessary basic knowledge and a few suggestions on how to deal with the issues topical in youth work in the digital era. All materials have been prepared by experts of the field and are suitable for both youth workers who are only starting out in the field of youth as well as seasoned experts.
The materials were prepared on the following topics:
Led by the think tank Praxis, the aim of the study was to provide an overview of the best digital youth work solutions or best practices used in foreign countries (the sample includes Finland, Norway, Ireland and Germany), analyse the applicability of such foreign practices in Estonia and make policy recommendations to ensure further development of smart youth work in the Estonian context.
What was positive was that in both Finland and Germany, in the scope of the projects, young people have been involved in urban planning through the popular video game Minecraft. In addition, a virtual youth centre has been established in the Åland archipelago in Finland, so that the few and very scattered young people in the archipelago could come together. Among other things, the young people were given virtual reality headsets and they started coming together in the virtual Recroom portal to play games, hold discussions and build their own virtual spaces. You can also read about the exciting digital street work solutions and about the use of artificial intelligence in youth work!
See the study HERE.
Last updated: 23.01.2024
