The question of which competences are needed by youth workers to face the digitalisation of their activities has opened a debate in recent years.

Obviously, the pandemic accelerated a process which was already in place, making it even more urgent to determine how youth work should adapt to digital environments, and how the very concept of inclusion would be changed by this.

We discussed which competences are needed by youth workers aiming for inclusion in digital youth work with the coordinator of the European Training Strategy at SALTO Training and Cooperation Resource Centre, Gisèle Evrard Markovic, who had a key role in developing their Competence Model for youth workers.

Recently, the same competence model for youth workers, and the one for trainers, also developed by SALTO Training and Cooperation, started undergoing a revision process to include a digital dimension to the competences.

This process started with the conference Exploring the Digital Dimension of Youth Workers’ Competences in Vienna, at the end of February 2020, where the main discussion was about creating a whole new, stand-alone competence area for digital youth work, or adding a digital dimension to the existing competence areas.

The second approach was finally selected, beginning a revision process due for completion by mid-2021.

This revised model should then underpin the new programme’s priorities, including that of digital youth work.

We had a very rich conversation with Gisèle, and two more podcast episodes (5 and 6), which give an overview of the discussion, are available here.