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1. Forthcoming policy developments

2. Ongoing debates

Forthcoming policy developments 

The National Youth Strategy 2025-2030, adopted in May 2025, makes youth work one of its three priorities. It aims at creating conditions for the stability and development of both non-formal and leisure-time education. A number of initiatives covered by the strategy deal mainly with the usual topics, such as the development of quality, stability of funding and methodological support. Action plans should make the strategy more operational.

In the last years, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports dealt mainly with direct support towards youth NGOs through the subsidy programmes. It also focuses on how to strengthen connections between formal and non-formal education. This scope has been enlarged again after the re-establishment of the full-fledged Youth Department in 2023.

On the level of state agencies, the National Institute for Further Education and the National Institute for Education have merged into the National Pedagogy Institute since the 1st of January 2020. Within the Institute, a Unit for Non-formal and Leisure-based education was created and it was supporting the work of the Ministry until the end of 2023, when it was abolished and the workplaces given to the newly established ministry Youth Department. 

Ongoing debates

The ongoing debates reflect the changes and processes in policy and public structures development. The discussions about the youth work development are rather on expert than public basis though.  

As the  Education 2030+ Strategy foresees more linking of Leisure-based Education within the school segment, further discussion is needed to clear the future situation up. 

Additional support was provided to schools, as well as the youth NGOs, in order to cope with the impacts of the Russian aggression to Ukraine and subsequently child and youth refugees arriving in the country.