CAN WE DO IT? YES, WE CAN! – REPORT FROM THE TRAINING COURSE ON USING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY IN YOUTH WORK

From 5 – 8 July 2022, we have had the opportunity to facilitate and lead the training course “DO IT in Youth Work” for 22 youth workers, which was organised by Agency for Mobility and EU Programmes in Croatia.

DO IT in Youth Work training course was organised by Agency for Mobility and EU Programmes (National Agency for Erasmus+ Programme), within the Training and Cooperation Activities.

 

Digital youth work today is important more than ever – we use digital media and new technology to enhance youth development. Digital youth work, as stated in different documents, is used to describe work that can happen in face-to-face situations, social and group settings as well as in online environments – or in a mixture of these. It is relevant to all youth work pedagogies and can enhance all types of practice. New generation of youth, born into the 21st century, grew up with technology all around them. While youth workers learned how to use digital tools in the Corona pandemic, there is a still relevant gap missing. Therefore, the main goal of the training course was to educate youth workers in methods and tools necessary for development of digital competencies of young people.

 

During this training course, participants had the opportunity to learn more about the digital youth work, digital safety, STEM education and how to use different tools, such as LEGO and 3D printing in their work. The training course was intended for youth workers who are on the beginning of their professional path and want to gain new knowledge in the field of digital youth work.

 

And what’s more important – participants were quite diverse – 22 of them came from 13 different countries: Croatia, Poland, Turkey, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Netherlands, Poland and Germany.

 

The training was led by our Domagoj Moric, who has extensive knowledge in the field of youth and is quite versatile in the topic of digital tools and digital youth work. It has to be mentioned that the idea for the training course came from Maja Katinić Vidović, a professional trainer and IT expert (Wizard & DOMAS Pool of Experts). Also, a significant part of the training was co-led with Ivan Decker from Gradionica. The training course was a success and participants were happy with the acquired knowledge and skills, as well as the important contacts they have created.

 

We would like to thank all participants, but also Agency for Mobility and EU Programmes for providing trust in us to deliver this training course!