Barriers and enablers to UK-German youth exchanges within the youth sector
Encouraging UK-German Youth Exchanges
In Germany, there was a desire to better support and train volunteer youth leaders to take on roles leading youth exchanges (as distinct from ‘adult’ youth workers) and a desire to support young volunteers in this situation. Many interview participants identified using the youth leader card ‘JuLeiCa’ 17 as a basis for this. However, interviewees suggested young people were in time-intensive phases of life due to education and work commitments. This made it difficult for youth organisations to recruit and retain them. Sending young people on training courses before they can organise a youth exchange creates a major hurdle, which confronts many young leaders with a number of challenges. In order to recruit sufficient leaders for youth exchanges, volunteer-friendly formats must be provided. On the UK side there was far less confidence amongst interviewees of their sector skills to engage in youth exchanges. There was a concern that the long-term reduction in youth work delivery, and limitations during the COVID-19 pandemic had left newer youth workers with limited experience, and large parts of the field lacking some of the core skills for exchanges. There were concerns about lack of experience, not just of international exchanges, but of local or national Enablers for youth workers Youth work survey participants were asked to rate the extent to which a series of external actions would increase their own ability to support or organise UK-German youth exchanges (Graphs 5.4 & 5.5). Youth worker training was ranked the lowest in both countries. This confirms findings from the previous section, that whilst there is a desire for competence development, training measures on their own are unlikely to lead to an increase in UK-German youth exchanges. All other
residential (overnight) work. This was said to have left many newer youth workers without the experience of developing and planning trips, including things such as organising transport safely, or supervising young people during overnight stays. A solution to this had been found in Northern Ireland, where international exchanges supported by the Education Authority were encouraged to have less experienced workers present alongside experienced workers, allowing the former to develop their skills in a supported environment. “There’s a whole lot of logistical stuff. We did a toolkit [to support youth workers] and the half of the toolkit was risk assessments and checklists for home ... information about taking a vehicle into Europe, nothing really radical. They needed information that was practical.” UK youth worker
Graph 5.3 Youth workers – How much would training in the following areas improve your ability to organise or support UK-German youth exchanges? (DE)
Mean rating (n=83) 0=Not at all 1=To some extent 2=To a moderate extent 3=To a great extent
Building international partnerships
2.1
Risk management in international work
2.0
2.0
Motivating and supporting young people during international work
1.9
Creating learning outcomes during youth exchanges
1.8
Evaluating youth exchanges
1.8
Language skills
1.8
Working in intercultural settings
0
1
2
3
“We prefer to work with youth workers who already have a lot of experience and with whom we have already had good experiences in previous exchanges. Depending on the country, we have established a pool of experienced youth workers who have country-specific skills, e.g., particularly good language skills. ... In some cases, we ‘share’ youth workers, e.g., county-wide, in order to use personnel resources collectively.” German youth worker
The interviews with youth workers gave a clearer picture of training requested. German youth workers were generally confident in their field’s ability to undertake the core components of delivering international work such as developing intercultural learning and organising the practicalities of an exchange. Nevertheless, there was an interest in further training opportunities, especially if these offer the possibility of networking with international partners and sharing best practices.
enablers were rated highly in both countries. Over three quarters of participants stating each of the remaining enablers would increase their ability to take part in UK-German youth exchanges to a great extent or to a moderate extent . This suggests a wide range of desires and interest amongst youth workers for infrastructure support, information on funding, and youth worker exchanges.
17 JuLeiCa is a federal ID for volunteers in the German youth work sector, proving the holder’s legitimation and qualification to support youth work related activities, e.g., leading youth group meetings, organising youth work events or youth camps. Cf. www.dbjr.de/en/topics/juleica (in English) and juleica.de (available in German only).
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