Quality assurance

High-quality offers and suitably qualified people working in extracurricular child and youth work are of particular importance when dealing with young people. Dealing with quality and the continuous quality development of extracurricular child and youth work has become an indispensable field of activity today. The definition of standards and the preoccupation with evaluation tools such as self-evaluation and impact analysis serve to take into account the needs of the increasingly complex field of action.

aufZAQ - Certified training quality for extracurricular child and youth work

On the one hand, the aufZAQ certificate is a means of proving personal qualification, on the other hand, it helps to ensure quality standards in education and training for full-time and voluntary youth leaders and youth workers. With the certificate the Federal Chancellery, the Youth Departments of the Federal States of Austria and the Youth Work Department of the Autonomous Province of Bozen/Bolzano – South Tyrol confirm that the certified courses are high-quality educational programs in the non-formal area. The aim of aufZAQ is to make the quality of courses visible, comparable and recognisable. Thus, people working in extracurricular child and youth work receive orientation when choosing a training or further education offer. For course participants, the aufZAQ certification is proof of the high quality of their education. For employers and institutions of child and youth work, aufZAQ guarantees that the respective course is a high-quality vocational education and training, which is strongly oriented towards professional practice.

According to the Competence Framework by aufZAQ there are 5 different competence areas. Each of the five areas is subdivided into different dimensions that specify the area in each case.

1. Enable, initiate and promote learning

Dimensions: 

Set educational goals using a participatory approach and support children/youths in achieving these objectives.

Create settings which promote (self-)education and learning processes.

Facilitate (self-)educational processes and shape learning processes.

Use appropriate methods for successful learning. 

Evaluate and develop learning processes.

1. Support identity development and approaches in coping with everyday life

Dimensions: 

• Support children/adolescents in the development of their identity and further personal development.
• Enable children/youths to experience self-efficacy.
• Promote responsibility and independence of children/adolescents.
• Strengthen personal recognition and sense of community.
• Support children/adolescents in coping with everyday life.

2. Enable participation, represent interests

Dimensions:

• Organise activities/offers/projects participatory.
• Use appropriate methods and procedures for successful participation.
• Enable participation in the development of the organisation.
• Promote social and political participation of children/adolescents.
• Represent the interests of children/young people.

3. Act and interact consciously and responsibly

Dimensions:

• Take responsibility.
• Implement roles conscientiously and with consideration.
• Include the different dimensions of diversity in the work.
• Design group/team settings.
• Initiate and design group/team processes.
• Accompany and develop group/team processes.
• Act constructively and solution-oriented in problem and conflict situations.
• Act competent with risks.

4. Organise and manage (projects)

Dimensions:

• Design organisational processes.
• Use appropriate methods for successful organisation.
• Evaluate and develop organisational processes.
• Carry out administrative tasks and use financial resources responsibly.
• Carry out communication and public relations.
• Shape and develop the organisation.

 

In addition to the content-related division into areas and dimensions, the competence framework also makes a distinction between different levels. There are five levels starting at Level 2.

• Level 2: Work with children/adolescents under guidance with some autonomy; Take responsibility for one’s own actions; Be responsible for one’s own actions, adapting under certain guidance one’s own behaviour to common situations and circumstances in a pre-structured framework
• Level3: Work with children/adolescents in simple situations autonomously and self-responsibly; Take responsibility for one’s own actions consistent to the situation; Independently adapt one’s own behaviour to the state and circumstances of common situations in a pre-structured framework
• Level 4: Work autonomously and self- responsibly with children/adolescents in changing routine situations; Plan, carry out, and evaluate projects; Independently adapt one’s own behaviour to different situations and under varying conditions to the respective state and circumstances
• Level 5: Act independently and flexibly in varying and even unpredictable situations. Coordinate and manage projects and/or teams independently. Instruct colleagues in changing assignments. Participate in the professional development of organisational structures and/or pedagogical concepts
• Level 6: Lead complex and comprehensive functional areas and/or projects independently and ultimately responsible. Deal critically and responsibly with actions of colleagues as well as project and working teams. Take responsibility for managing the professional development of individuals, teams, organisational structures, and pedagogical concepts or those of a similar nature

 

Quality assurance

Federal youth organisations that apply for basic funding from the Federal Government are required to carry out continuous quality assurance.

Additionally, depending on the area of Children and Youth work, there are different types of mechanisms in place to evaluate the quality of youth work programmes and projects. 

Youth Information

The following measures are being implemented in the National Network of Austrian Youth Information Centres: 

• Ongoing further training offers for the staff of the Youth Information Centres – from the beginner course through to in-depth topics.
• Nationwide quality criteria and quality standards as well as a commitment to the European Youth Information Principles. A quality criteria guide (including checking procedures) is part of “Quality in Youth Information” (Qualität in der Jugendinformation); it describes the quality assurance mechanisms for the Austrian Youth Information Centres and is divided into key areas, criteria, and indicators. 

Professional Open Children and Youth work

Most Professional Open Children and Youth workers are specifically qualified employees with relevant training in the total amount of at least 60 ECTS points or 1500 hours in the secondary, post-secondary and tertiary sector. Further extra occupational training, supervision and intervision are important elements of quality assurance. The Quality Manual for Open Youth Work, 4^th edition, August 2016 (Qualitätshandbuch für Offene Jugendarbeit, 4. Auflage, August 2016), developed by the Centre of Competence for Open Youth Work in 2011, outlines the basic principles in the area of quality standards. It describes the requirements in terms of structure, process and result of Professional Open Children and Youth Work in Austria and makes suggestions for further development. Furthermore, the impact concept "Goals, achievements and effects of the Open Youth Work in Austria" (Ziele, Leistungen und Wirkungen der Offenen Jugendarbeit in Österreich) - a description of 5 dimensions of the Open Youth Work, the Toolkit "Tools and Methods of Quality Development for Open Youth Work“ (Werkzeuge und Methoden der Qualitätsentwicklung für die Offene Jugendarbeit) and the bOJA-Documentation Database contribute to the quality assurance and development of the field.

Children and youth work in youth organisations

Many seminars, courses, workshops and programmes are constantly held within the framework of internal educational and further training measures and are attended by thousands of volunteers and communicators. These non-formal educational offers contribute greatly to quality assurance in associational children and youth work. A detailed overview of the educational and further training measures in the area of associational child and youth organisations can be found in the publication “This Way! Navigational Aid Child and Youth Organisations” (Hier geht’s lang! Navigationshilfe Kinder- und Jugendorganisationen).

The "Manual for the Promotion of Gender Mainstreaming in Child and Youth Work - Ideas and Tools" ("Handbuch zur Förderung von Gender Mainstreaming in der Kinder- und Jugendarbeit. Ideen und Werkzeuge"), developed by the National Youth Council in cooperation with cooperation partners, aims to support reflective and gender-related work with children and adolescents. It is actively supported in the member organisations of the National Youth Council.

Quality assurance for applicants for basic funding:

The Federal Youth Promotion Act stipulates that basic support should only be granted to those youth organisations which - in addition to a number of other conditions - provide continuous quality assurance in accordance with § 6 para. 1 no. 6 Federal Youth Promotion Act or § 13 para. 4 of the Guidelines of the Federal Youth Promotion Act perform their work. In view of this, as well as the fundamental meaning and necessity of quality assurance in associative youth work, a series of measures and activities have already been set in recent years, all aimed at finding ways, ways, methods, standards, etc. A key message of these cooperation projects is the recommendation of the way of self-evaluation. In addition, a form for the proof of the implementation of a continuous quality assurance (Formblatt für den Nachweis der Durchführung einer kontinuierlichen Qualitätssicherung) for the grant submission according to section 13 (4) of the Federal Youth Promotion Act must be completed compulsorily and submitted together with the application for basic funding.

Research and evidence supporting Youth Work

Dialogue Youth Research (Dialog Jugendforschung)

Dialogue Youth Research serves to present and discuss current research results and activities in the field of youth research.

Below is a brief overview of recent events of the dialog youth research:

• Impact evaluation of mobile youth work (Wirkungsevaluation mobiler Jugendarbeit), September 2017.

Mobile youth work represents an outreach, life-world-oriented social support offer for a particularly vulnerable target group. A complex research design and a mix of five methodological approaches highlight the high complexity of impact dynamics and contexts. Each research access is characterized by special strengths, which complement each other and enable meaningful knowledge of action. The publication Impact evaluation of mobile youth work (Wirkungsevaluation mobiler Jugendarbeit) can be obtained as Open Access Version on the website of the Institute for the Sociology of Law and Criminology(Instituts für Rechts- und Kriminalsoziologie, IRKS).

• Knowledge about young people in Austria: results from the 7th youth report.

What do we know about young people in Austria?

At the Dialogue on Youth Research, the authorship of the 7th Report on the Situation of Youth in Austria gave an insight into the most important, surprising and implicit results of the 7th Youth Report - Part A: Knowledge of Young People. Both existing studies and especially prepared analyses, for example from the Austrian Health Survey (Österreichische Gesundheitsbefragung), were used for this purpose. For example, the Youth Research Dialogue dealt with the following questions:

• Who is the Austrian youth?
• Which educational paths do Austrian young people take?
• How are young people with a migration background?
• Which health problems and diseases are particularly affecting young people?
• When do young people start smoking and how is their health behaviour (alcohol, exercise, diet)?
• How are young people in their home environment, with their relationships, with their sexuality, with themselves?

• Youth-specific data

In a research project, the Austrian Institute for Family Research (Österreichisches Institut für Familienforschung, ÖIF) documented which youth-relevant data are regularly collected by institutions. This makes it possible to quickly and easily access different contents of youth topics and to link them in content.

All previous studies can be viewed on the website of the ÖIF.

Focus Youth - An overview in numbers

The publication "Focus on Youth - An Overview in Numbers" (Fokus Jugend 2019- Ein Überblick in Zahlen) was developed by the Austrian Institute for Family Research at the University of Vienna in cooperation with the Competence Centre for Youth in the Federal Chancellery and with the participation of youth policy stakeholders. It provides a compact overview of existing data on young people in Austria. For this purpose, existing, publicly available statistics were researched and processed in a user-friendly way.

Impact box Youth Work

The impact box Youth Work (Wirkungsbox Jugendarbeit) provides a comprehensive collection of empirically proven and well-founded effects of extracurricular work for children and youth. This collection is based on the results of literature research funded by the Federal Chancellery and carried out by the Centre of Competence for Non-profit Organisations and Social Entrepreneurship of WU Vienna (Kompetenzzentrum für Nonprofit Organisationen und Social Entrepreneurship) for evidence-based, societal effects of extracurricular child and youth work. The impact box youth work contains effects from about 200 relevant contributions in scientific and grey literature. These effects of various activities of extracurricular Child and Youth Work are described in the impact box, according to the original language of the article, in German or English. The concept of the effect box developed by Schober/Rauscher (2017) is used here.

The Federal Chancellery has a budget to finance youth research and youth reports. 

The Youth Report is prepared at the request of the National Council, commissioned by the Youth Minister and submitted to the National Council once during the legislative period. The recent report on the situation of youth in Austria has been published in 2016. The preparation of Parts A and B of the 7th Report on the Situation of Youth in Austria was entrusted to the Danube University Krems Department for Migration and Globalization in cooperation with Statistics Austria. The outcomes of these reports are integrated in the Austria Youth Strategy.

Participate Youth Work

Participatory youth research

Young people are professionals for their worlds

From researchers to co-researchers

The aim of participatory research approaches is to involve affected persons in sub-stages or the entire research process, and thus to improve the applicability of research results. Marginalised groups without a public presence should be supported in expressing their opinion and giving their voice weight.

In a first step towards the (further) development of participatory research approaches, the Institute for Children's Rights and Parental Education (Institut für Kinderrechte und Elternbildung, IKEB) was commissioned to compile a literature review (Literaturanalyse – partizipative Jugendforschung) on methods of participatory research projects with young people.

Get active Team

Together with the Nation Network of Youth Information Centres the Federal Chancellery initiated the founding of the “Get-Active-Team”. The aim was to set up a "youth participation pool": a group of young people who regularly participate actively in projects and measures for young people and want to help develop them with different organisations. 

Reality Checks:

As part of the Austrian Youth Strategy, each ministry formulates one or more youth goals that are aimed at young people in Austria. In a "reality check" an exchange about the respective youth goals of the ministry between young people and representatives of the departments is planned held. In a reflection, the goals are to be considered, for example, whether they are relevant to young people, whether they take up the realities of life. Through the discussion with the Get Active Team, the ministries want to take up and integrate ideas, suggestions, and perspectives of young people into the formulation of goals or for the development of further measures. Overall, reality check workshops were held with 3 different Ministries in 2019:



• BKA (Federal Chancellery – Department for Families and Youth)



• BMBWF (Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research)



• BMF (Federal Ministry of Finance)

Smart youth work: youth work in the digital world

bOJA – Centre of Competence for Open Youth Work organised their annual symposium with the focus on digital youth work in 2017. All lectures are provided online. Explizit- With the 2018 edition of the bOJA "Explizit" online magazine, the content of the symposium is provided online.

The conference "Exploring the digital dimension of youth workers' competencies" will take place from 24. to 27.2. 2020 in Vienna.

Around 120 participants will be able to get an overview of the latest developments concerning the digital dimension of youth work and exchange their skills.

The target groups are youth workers, youth leaders, and trainers as well as other stakeholders of youth work.

The conference is organised by the National Agency ERASMUS+ Austria in cooperation with aufZAQ, POYWE, and SALTO.

The study WhatsApp - a "must-have", Snapchat - a teen phenomenon, YouTube as an increasingly important daytime companion of the "Generation Cloud TV" (WhatsApp  –  ein  „Must-Have“,  Snapchat  –  ein  Teenie-Phänomen,  YouTube als zunehmend wichtiger Tagesbegleiter der „Generation Cloud-TV“) of the Institute for Youth Culture Research (Institut für Jugendkulturforschung) gives insights into the digital lives of young Austrians. The Institute has interviewed 300 educational "Digital Natives" aged 16 to 24 years for their digital communication. The study shows that social media are an indispensable part of youth cultural life.

make-IT-safe 2.0

The project make-IT-safe 2.0 is a peer project of ECPAT.

Peer education aims to strengthen the media literacy of children and adolescents so that they can avoid the risks of violence when using digital media.

Youth workers will find an overview of the chapters covered and additional background information. The toolbox has been developed by the peer experts together with their coaches. It is a collection of methods that can be used in extracurricular youth work to raise the awareness of children and adolescents regarding "Child Protection Online".

A webinar by the initiative digi4family addressed the topic “Youth Work in a digitised society” (Jugendarbeit in einer digitalisierten Gesellschaft) – an event with an interactive live broadcast.

In the workshop results of a research project on digital youth work (E-YOUTH-works) were combined with the know-how of saferinternet.at and the following questions were worked on together:

• Which fields of work and types of use of digital youth work exist?
• Which social networks do young people use?
• How can Instagram be used as a communication and working medium in youth work?
• What do you have to consider when working with Instagram?
• What knowledge and skills are helpful for digital youth work?

In one of the interactive parts, Instagram posts were reflected together. In order to make this as practical as possible, 2-3 posts from the account of the participating youth organisation could be forwarded in advance as examples of the reflection.

Digi4Family is an initiative of the Federal Chancellery to increase the media literacy of families.

MAKING: digital fiddling for the youth work (MAKING: digitales Tüfteln für die Jugendarbeit)

This workshop seminar invited to try out different possibilities of MAKING. From electronic components useful or funny workpieces were soldered and created. Analogous and digital designs for the foil cutter (T-shirts, bags, stickers or inscriptions) were designed and first own objects planned for 3D printing. The seminar was free of charge as part of the Erasmus + project Digitally Agile Youth Work. 

bOJA and the Institute for the Sociology of Law and Criminology provided workshops on digital youth work in cooperation with the umbrella organisations in the federal states.

saferinternet.at provides services (tools, news, FAQs, material and tips) for youth workers online and offline.

The wienXtra-medienzentrum presents the results of an Austria-wide online survey and talks with young people and youth workers on young media behaviour and media in youth work. The report (Screenagers - Digitale Medien in der österreichischen Jugendarbeit) provides insight into the results of the online survey as well as the case studies and focus group discussions. Screenagers International was a project funded by Erasmus+. 

The blog www.medienkompetenzja.wien is a virtual exchange platform for employees of Vienna's child and youth work. They share their knowledge, their experiences and information about media work with children and adolescents. The blog is also available to an interested professional audience. The project is funded by the City of Vienna.

The Federal State Styria published the book “youth work: analogue and digital - an interdisciplinary discussion” (jugendarbeit: analog und digital - Versuch einer interdisziplinären Auseinandersetzung).

The Fachstelle NÖ with its approximately 100 qualified employees is a hub and competence centre for addiction work and sexual education in Lower Austria. This institution offers seminars addressing digital media in youth work: Seminar on addiction-preventive access to digital media: At what point is internet usage problematic? What signals are there for a pathological internet use? What dangers can exist and how can they be handled? (Seminar über den suchtpräventiven Zugang zu digitalen Medien: Wann liegt eine problematische Internetnutzung vor? Welche Signale gibt es für einen pathologischen Internetgebrauch? Welche Gefahren können bestehen und wie kann damit umgegangen werden?)