Barriers and enablers for young people when taking part in UK-German youth exchanges
Encouraging UK-German Youth Exchanges
Young survey participants were given the opportunity to identify other barriers that would prevent them from taking part in a youth exchange through an open text box as well as to leave comments at the end of the survey. Overall, most answers supported the idea that financial concerns were a key factor as well as access to information. However, many German young people were also uncertain about the visa requirements to enter the UK. Alongside this, a number of other themes could also be seen in the answers: › Concern about poor quality of host organi- sations, or poor communication of oppor- tunities. › Concern about not being able to fit the exchange into work or study, or lack of free time to undertake an exchange. › Concerns related to the post Brexit political situation and complexities related to this such as challenges with visas and administration, feeling unwelcome, or experiencing racism. › Not knowing or not feeling comfortable with other participants, including concerns about feeling too old for a youth exchange or having too big an age gap from other participants. › Concerns relating to disability access.
Graph 4.5 Young people – How much do you agree … I would need close support from someone I trust, like a youth worker or mentor, to take part in a youth exchange (by country group)
40
UK (n=197) DE (n=669)
36.5
30
28.1
27.6
26.0
22.0
20.6
20
16.6
10.4
10
7.8
4.3
0
“The [young people in the workshop] felt that these exchanges were for ‘posh 7 kids’ in ‘posh schools’ ... . Young people were worried about staying with host families and potentially staying away from friends ... Young people were also worried that they would not be able to host German young people due to their living circumstances and not having the space or funds to support them.” UK youth worker description of young people’s comments
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Neither agree nor disagree
Agree
Strongly agree
within programmes as young leaders. By contrast, UK youth workers described continual support from a youth worker throughout an exchange whilst still enabling young people to direct decisions about the exchange. Differences in ages may be a factor here, UK youth work practice typically focuses on 13-19-year-olds, whilst German practice has a higher upper age limit, enabling young people to take on more responsibility.
During interviews youth workers described somewhat different approaches to supporting young people to take part in youth exchanges. Both German and UK youth workers were keen for a participative approach that allowed young people to shape and design youth exchanges. However, German youth workers described supporting young people to be more independent when organising youth exchanges, taking on stronger roles
Young people from lower income backgrounds taking part in the consultation workshops identified fears they had about youth exchanges not being suitable for young people in their financial situation:
7 ‘posh’ is slang within the UK and refers to the wealthy or upper class.
50
51
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