As part of the Erasmus Plus project "Live Learning - A way to Europe - for everyone!" the Solidarity Youth of Germany organized a virtual expert day on international youth exchange on November 17.
The goal was to exchange ideas about access to experiences abroad and stays especially for young people with special needs. Despite convincing findings on the relevance of international youth work, not
all young people are reached with the offers. The Access Study and Access Study+ investigated why young people from more underprivileged backgrounds, with lower levels of education, or with an immigrant background are underrepresented in international measures. What keeps them from participating? And vice versa: How can they be enabled to participate? Our discussion focused on the questions: How can a stimulating learning space be designed for this target group? What is important here? And how can this target group be involved in the design? The discussion about status quo, perspectives and challenges in youth association work also played a role.
The introduction to the topic was made by Dr. Helle Becker, who as part of the research team was significantly involved in the Access Study and the Access Study+.
Wolfgang Hillenbrand from EUCON e. V. presented the Erasmus+ funded project "Live Learning - A way to Europe - for everyone!" which is looking for ways to improve the participation of young people with special needs in international exchanges. For this purpose, they are collecting methodological formats of international youth exchange in the participating countries in order to enable experiences and stays abroad especially for young people with special needs. Partners from Germany, France, Sweden, Slovenia and Spain are involved.
Christine Scherer from Pfefferwerk AG presented the project "Network Event Berlin", which she manages in Berlin. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and the European Social Fund within the framework of the ESF Integration Guideline Federal, Action Focus Integration through Exchange (IdA).
The aim of this project is to increase the employment opportunities of disadvantaged groups of people, possibly people with disabilities, to promote transnational exchange and transnational mobility and to teach digital forms of work and learning. Target groups are groups of people with difficult access to the training or labor market: disadvantaged young people and unemployed young adults up to 35 (focus up to 25).
During the project presentations and the subsequent discussions, it quickly became apparent that interest in international youth exchange is also very high among disadvantaged or underrepresented youth target groups.
Often it is not because of them, but because of the general conditions that this group does not participate. There are many prejudices and the impression is created that this type of exchange is a luxury activity that is demanding and not affordable and does not interest these young people. However, it is clear that international youth work is not only something for good students with solid foreign language skills. It is meant for everyone!
The most common hurdles for young people are the lack of information about funding opportunities and
exchange formats.
Past experiences working with underrepresented youth repeatedly make clear what has been called for years:
International youth work must be embedded as part of general youth work.
Organizers must be educated and informed about the advantages of international youth work.
The funding logic and guidelines must be geared to the young people and not the other way around.
Professionals and volunteers in the field need to be supported more in terms of project organization.
The needs of the young people must be taken more into account in the planning and more trust must be placed in them.
Overall, there must be good preparation for the exchange.
Personality development is the most important thing and not whether young people are "ready for the job market" afterwards. Free space should be created for this and the acquisition of skills should be secondary.
More information on the access study and projects is available here:
https://www.forschung-und-praxis-im-dialog.de/
https://www.zugangsstudie.de/downloads-und-materialien-2/
https://www.live-learning.eu/
https://network-eventberlin.de/
