Youth unemployment is still a hot problematic European topic. On the other hand we have and especially young people have to face job and training markets that are more and more confusing referring to job offers and opportunities and also to required skills and competences that young people have to bring with them.

Life makes demands and offers a lot of opportunities at the same time. So, youngsters feel overstrained and it becomes difficult for them to orientate themselves, find the right place and develop their own identity and personality. That makes it also difficult for them to generate an idea of their future life and in particular their professional life.

However there are people who are working with youngsters all over Europe and support and attend to young people by orientating and planning their professional way and life. They are social workers, educators, pedagogues, vocational counsellors, helpers for youngsters with special needs or heritage, volunteers of institutions and associations that work with youngsters etc.

With their support we will initiate a reformation of the pedagogical work in the field of youth and promote regional cooperation of partners from different kinds and institutions of youth work for a better occupational orientation of young people.

In our project “Work on it!” we are a project consortium of 4 European project partners from Germany, Spain, Latvia and Bulgaria. We are experienced in implementing regional and international projects for and with youngsters. In this project „Work on it!“ we will work and cooperate with local practice partners in the field of youth work from the partner countries.

Therefore we will increase the vocational and social pedagogical competences of these professionals by concentrating on their existing competences. We will furthermore enable and encourage them to develop local cooperation systems for the support of young people from the age of 13 on – pupils, unemployed young people, disadvantaged and disabled youngsters – to offer them assistance that includes their entire living environment on their way to a satisfying occupational and social life.

Methodically we rely on an intensive, cooperative and democratic teamwork with our practice partners. We will determine different methods, tools and good practices, which our practice partners implement in their daily work with youngsters and that are useful to support young people on their way to a suitable profession. The collection of methods and tools will be the base for a handbook that should help our target group to increase their professionalism and methodical competence. We will develop the handbook together with our practice partners who will provide the methods and tools, test the handbook and give feedback for a final usable version. We will learn together and from each other in learning activities, based on a curriculum developed during the project.

Also networking, exchange and cooperation between the different practice partners and stakeholders on regional and international level will increase pedagogical and methodical competences.