Stakeholders discuss Priorities for Education, Training and Youth

This year’s Education, Training and Youth Forum, held in Brussels, Belgium, on 19 and 20 October, featured TED-like talks and panel discussions about youth policies and programmes.

Stakeholders met to talk about how to implement the European Commission’s six priorities for Education and Training 2020 and the EU Youth Strategy. One panel discussion focused specifically on implementing the Paris Declaration, which promotes education as a way of encouraging social inclusion and challenging “radicalisation”.

During the second day of the Forum, the European Youth Forum acted as rapporteur on a workshop on youth participation in democracy and on how politics should change to encourage youth participation. A lively debate between representatives of youth organisations, the European Commission, youth workers and representatives from national Governments resulted focused on four main themes and recommendations:

1. We need a mindset change: young people aren’t a problem to be solved or a group that needs things done for them, but agents of change in their own right. They should be seen as collaborators, empowered and handed the reins to make decisions themselves.
2. This means more direct decision-making influence for young people. There’s a difference between (often empty) ‘consultations’, where young people are asked their opinions but it doesn’t go anywhere, and really giving young people and youth organisations a formal input into decision-making.
3. Resource support is essential: young people and youth organisations need funding if they’re to be empowered. It’s one thing for EU leaders to say that education is crucial in fighting extremism, but at the same time seeing education budgets slashed in many member states. Rhetoric on young people needs to be matched with financial support.
4. Citizenship education: is crucial in empowering young people to participate – teaching skills like media literacy, critical thinking, navigating democracy, etc. It should be mandatory in formal school curricula and also supported by Non-Formal Education (NFE) providers.

Importantly, these points closely reflect some of the key recommendations of the European Youth Forum’s YouthUP campaign, which are based on findings from our recent study. For more information about YouthUP, check out the website here.