The EU 2020 strategy sets out a target to reach a 75% employment rate for 20 to 64 year olds across Europe, however the stark reality is that the EU continually faces youth unemployment challenges. Eurostat report, 2018 edition, shows that in 2017, 14.3% of 18 to 24-year olds were neither in employment nor in education, exposing themselves to the risk of labour market exclusion and dependence on social security. The same report goes on emphasising that people with low educational attainment form one of the most disadvantaged groups in the labour market, exhibiting low employment rates. These findings underline the importance of education for employability. Youth Organisations have been long identified as having a pivotal role in reversing unemployment trends and equipping young people with transversal skills and enhancing their personal development. However, reports show that if such organisations developed their core administrative activities, they would have the capacity to have a significantly higher impact. The partners identified that there is no specific course in Europe, offered either by Universities or other educational stakeholders, specifically upon the administration of Youth NGOs. Therefore, to respond to the needs of existing and prospective youth NGOs in enhancing their administrative procedures, NGO leaders shall have access to a course in ‘Youth Organisation administration’, that is specifically relevant, offers concrete learning outcomes, and is flexible to fit around an already busy schedule of many youth organisation members. Thus, aim of this project is to strengthen the managerial and administrative capacity of Youth Organisation Leaders, as a means to validify the capacity and recognition of Youth Organisations as non-formal educators of young people. The project will develop an online course for youth NGO leaders in “Youth NGO Administration”, comprising of four modules: 1) Non-Formal Education; 2) Organisational Management and Strategies; 3) Project Management; 4) Financial Management & Organisational Administration. The online course will meet the learning needs of youth NGO leaders as it will be identified through a research phase, where inputs from at least 100 existing and prospective youth NGO leaders will be collected. Once completed and published, the course will be administered on-line through an e-learning platform. The course material will be an open access resource for anyone involved in or interested to be involved in the management and administration of Youth Organisations. Individuals that follow the full learning programme of each of the four modules, and successfully complete each of the on-line module tests will be issued a diploma certificate, approved by each of the participating organisations. Through this capacity development, Youth organisations will become a more visible and respected constituent of a European wide learning and development agenda for young people, fundamentally fostering the recognition and validation of non-formal learning.
The project had four objectives: 1. To develop a course on “Youth Organisation administration” on four specific thematic modules that meets the learning needs of Youth NGO leaders; 2. To develop an e-learning platform as to make course available online as an open educational resource; 3. To train a team of 24 Multipliers to promote the online course among stakeholders outside the project’s consortium; 4. To promote the role of youth organisations in social and economic development, regionally and across the EU.
The project sought to enhance the administrative capacity of Youth Organisations across Europe to enable them to better act as counterparts to the formal educational system, promoting the personal development and transversal skills of young people. Youth organisations across Europe are working tirelessly to make a positive change for young people. They are created and ran by active people with a desire and vision to make a difference. However, based upon the research and experience of the consortium, more often than not, such organisations had little or no administrative experience. It was the partner believe that if youth organisations developed their core administrative activities, they would have the capacity to have a significantly higher impact through their activities with young people. The partners identified that there is no specific course in Europe, offered either by universities or other educational stakeholders, specifically upon the administration of Youth NGOs. Therefore, to enhance the capacity of existing and prospective youth NGOs to effectively administrate their organisations, the project addressed the need of developing a bespoke course in NGO administration for NGO leaders.