"The project "" Youth Development Group - the after school social support program of adolescent youth"" has been implemented from the 1st of October 2014 to 30th of september 2016 by the Foundation Sempre a Frente in partnership with the Irish institution Foroige .Merits of the project - is the development and establishment of afterschool youth program of social support, and on it basis organizing and leading the Youth Development Group (the after school program), for young people growing up located at the age of 15-19 years.The program is be based on the assumptions of non-formal education , psycheducation and youth prevention.During the project there were consultation with project partners led, what has resulted in creating an educational program and a guide for youth workers, completing pilot development groups, and organizing summing up conference with the participation of youth, youth workers and Irish partner. For good recognition of project's results two organizations participating in the project conducted as well a series of open workshops to disseminate the results of the Lublin region and Ireland for representatives of institutions and organizations working with adolescent youth.During the project there were also two international meetings organized and international training course in Ireland for youth workers. The workshops led by Irish experts were meant to bring about non formal education metods and tools in terms of interpersonal development among adolescent youth.The project involves a long-term partnership and the continued use of its results through regular and annual run of youth development group."

<< Objectives >>The project aims to improve job placement opportunities for young people with social and/or educational deficits through a process of analysis and validation of the personal skills (soft skills) that appear on their CV but which lack the necessary credibility to be a differential factor. It intends to use this process as the basis of a methodology of guidance and competency improvement for young people through the development and training of the figure of a Competency Counselor.<< Implementation >>Activities aimed at planning and preparing the expected results will include: Competency validation methodology, Apps to support the validation process, Competency guidance methodology, tool-kit and Competency Counselor digital training resource. These activities will not only be focused on achieving the defined results but on doing it with quality and using an inclusive approach and in a collaborative way applicable to young people with fewer opportunities.<< Results >>A methodology for analysis and validation of the true skills of the young person will be developed, supported by a mobile App that facilitates this process (WP3); a methodology that supports youth professionals in defining the competency objectives of the young person, supported by a resource bank (WP3); and, finally, a digital training resource (e-learning) for the figure of Competency Counselor (WP4) supported by follow-up and dissemination processes.

"<< Background >>Young people have always suffered particularly from economic and value crises, especially when it comes to job opportunities. The current situation of the youth unemployment rate (39.9% of young people under 25 years of age in Spain, 16% in Ireland, 18% in France, 14% in Poland or 17.8% in the EU as a whole), of youth inactivity rate and other elements derived from prejudices about young people make it important to work from a different approach to the traditional one and adapted to new needs.Traditionally, the skills and competencies of people have been certified through official qualifications, whether derived from formal studies such as those derived from courses and non-formal training. This trend has changed in recent years, prioritizing other personal skills and abilities as well, since official qualifications do not always guarantee certain necessary skills in the workplace and / or training. Employers embrace that trend and even value hiring young people who have values.And this fact can not only be applied to employability, but also in other types of processes, be they training, education in leisure time, volunteering, etc.If this fact has a general effect on young people, what happens in the case of young people with fewer opportunities? The statistics show that it is considerably worse with young people who have some type of social, educational, economic, family or even race or origin difficulty.These situations and these young people are the profile with which the social organizations partner in the project act and they know this problem and the reality that it entails, since it is the work we do every day.So, how can employability, training opportunities or anything that involves a selection process of a young person in a situation of social risk be improved? How can the young person be assessed if they do not have specific experience and / or training? What happens when one of these young people presents his resume in a job interview?The proposal of this project is: ""recovering / taking advantage of / validating"" the personal competencies and values that it has. Also helping them to establish new competency objectives and to work on reinforcing their values and establishing new ones. Therefore, making a process of validation of those competencies and values so that they are not the opinion ""only"" of the young person himself, but something validated and reinforced by a third party based on a homogeneous methodology that allows the credibility of their level of competence and values. .Therefore, give importance to what you do have, your personal skills and your values; and give that importance by reinforcing the veracity and credibility of ""I am responsible"" ""I am creative"" ""I know how to work in a team"" ""I have a good attitude"" ""I am a proactive person"", among many others.Therefore, new agents emerge: educators, youth workers and entities that, through a METHODOLOGY, can validate these competences with a scientific base and contrasted by a Chair of Social Innovation (University); and new tools: offering young people an accessible and simple MOBILE APPLICATION for collection and analysis of skills.The organizations that make up the project know that a competence or a value is not something binary, but rather implies skills, attitudes, aptitudes or approaches that need a deeper reflection. That is why the importance of youth workers in this process: to guide them, motivate them, support them and, finally, validate them in the competence process.<< Objectives >>The project raises the paradox that, being these competencies increasingly necessary and valued, they are the least verifiable. For example, in a curriculum we can identify skills implicit in official degrees, skills and abilities implicit in courses, work experience or non-formal learning; But when it comes to defining the personal skills and values of the young person (I am good at teamwork, I am a creative person, I have a positive attitude or I am responsible, among many others) it is much more difficult for this to have value or credibility with the employer or educator since, traditionally, this is contrasted once the employment relationship or the training process, volunteering, ...We want to reiterate the importance that the values and personal competencies that the young person has are one of the most important aspects that determine their future work or training but that instead cannot be contrasted or valued because they are not validated by any method beyond of personal opinion.Therefore, the general objectives of the project are:- Promote latent or hidden skills of young people with fewer opportunities to improve their future possibilities.- Create tools that facilitate this process and make it simple and effective.- Promote the participation of people close to young people who guarantee continued and close support.- Improve the possibilities of employability, training or volunteering for young people with little work or training experience.- Promote the valuation of personal skills and values among employers.From these general objectives, specific objectives are derived:- Enhance the strengths of young people without work or training experience who are facing a selection process.- Facilitate tools, exchange of experiences and good practices between entities for the work of improving the opportunities of the young people with whom they work.- Create a methodology (O1) based on facilitating homogenization in the validation process by youth workers of personal competencies and youth values.- Create an easily accessible tool (O2) for young people so that they can add the competences proposal, their assessment and the competency objectives.- Facilitate the selection processes for employers and other entities.- Generate a verifiable validation of the personal competencies and values of the young participants.- Disseminate these tools and methodologies to other entities and interest groups.<< Implementation >>The activities described in the project (especially in the Activities section) are based on processes that promote the creation of validation processes of personal competencies and values among young people with the support of referents (youth workers, educators or tutors).It is intended to generate a joint work with two profiles of partners; on the one hand social entities with access and active projects with young people with fewer opportunities with a diverse profile and, on the other hand, the reinforcement of a university that can validate the methodological processes. There are also a large number of non-formal partners, recipients of this work and potential implementers of the results.Specifically, the activities are based on joint reflection between the partners of the personal competencies and necessary values and their selection (A1). This will be based both on the experience of the organizations themselves and on contrast with different groups of young people. Subsequently, work will begin on creating a methodological basis (A2) that allows the referents of these young people (educators, youth workers or tutors) to have a process to validate these competencies. This process will not be binary, but will involve the continuous acquisition of sub-competencies that generate the acquisition of specific competencies. This methodology will not only contain validation but also processes to support and motivate the young person to set new goals to acquire new skills. This part will end with the creation of said methodology (O2).The following activity involves testing the process (A3) with different groups of young people from different organizations (and also non-formal partners) to test the effectiveness of the process.Once this phase is finished, the testing and validation process will begin with the different groups of young people and youth workers (A5).The activities will continue with the final preparation of these materials and other elements (A6) that can facilitate their dissemination, dissemination and distribution among interest groups (among others, non-formal partners).One of the most important elements in this phase are the Multiplier Events (E) since, given their degree of specialization in the target audience and their broad territorial scope, they will be a vital element of dissemination.The activities inherent to the purpose of the project will end with the dissemination and dissemination of the results (A7) beyond that generated in the Multiplier Events.Obviously the project has other activities more related to the project's own management (A1 Management and A8 Evaluation) but which are widely described in the development of this application.<< Results >>The group of partners promoting this proposal is convinced of the value and results of this project beyond the creation of the Project Results (O1 and O2).We believe that the fact that the consortium has detected common needs in different European countries and is grouped to seek solutions and generate processes that improve the situation of the young people with whom it operates, has an important value and can be considered an implicit positive result .In the same way, we consider that the participation of the young people themselves in the test groups generates an important value for them, since it enhances their participation, motivation and resilience. They will be co-creators of these tools and will have the possibility to get involved at the level they want in the process of creating the tools. The same happens with the involvement and participation of youth workers, educators and tutors who will be direct participants and co-creators of the methodologies.On the other hand, the benefit generated by this project at the level of connections and cooperation between different types of organizations, be they social, youth organizations, occupationally oriented, companies and the rest of non-formal partners also generates added value to the proposal.However, the tangible results that are intended to generate are two:- A methodology (O1) that supports the referents of young people (youth workers, educators or tutors) to carry out the validation process of the personal skills and values of young people. Therefore, a document prepared with a pedagogical basis that allows them to apply the methods to be able to assess the acquisition of a specific competence or value through the fulfillment of certain conditions and that, all this, can be recorded so that there is an effective validation. This result will be a joint process of all project partners, where the University of Lleida, through its Chair of Social Innovation, will be the guarantor of the pedagogical and social base of the tool.- An Application (probably mobile application) accessible and simple to facilitate that young people can dump the data of acquired skills, skills to be acquired and objectives, so that this information can be contrasted and validated by the referents of said young people. The purpose of this is that young people can contrast these skills beyond their own opinion or perception."