The project "Smartphones as a Tool for Competency Development of Youth" aimed to achieve the following objectives: to explore smartphones as a tool for the competency development of young people from diverse backgrounds, with particular attention given to young people with fewer opportunities, especially those facing social and economic challenges and difficulties; to develop fifteen activities based on the use of smartphones in order to strengthen young people’s critical thinking, media literacy, and digital skills, and to present them in the form of a Toolkit published in English as well as in the languages of the participating countries; and to increase the capacities of staff, youth workers, and youth leaders to use smartphones as a tool to reach a diverse audience of young people and to support the development of their competencies, taking into account the fact that young people come from different backgrounds, have varied needs and interests, and receive different levels of support from their families and communities.
The consortium of three organisations — Association la Génération de Demain, Center for Tourism, Training and Research Skopje, and Mission: Reconnect, z.s. — submitted the project "Smartphones as a Tool for Competency Development of Youth" with the aim of strengthening their capacity to use smartphones as effective tools for developing the competencies of diverse groups of young people. The project was also designed to create new activities based on non-formal education, supporting young people in developing a wide range of competencies (entrepreneurial, intercultural, or related to the labour market). In addition, the project aimed to enhance the skills of youth workers in integrating smartphones into their educational activities based on non-formal education in an interactive and engaging way, thus fostering both the personal development and critical thinking of young people. Another important objective of the project was to facilitate the exchange of practices, methods, and tools among the participating organisations, while also strengthening their capacity for international cooperation.