10.5 Youth workers
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Status in national legislation
There is no specific legislation around youth work, as mentioned above.
The professional profile of the youth worker it a level 4 EQF standard, with double certification, allowing the access to the 12th-grade degree of secondary school education, building bridges between non-formal and formal education.
Youth workers are required with specific training in some youth programmes, like holiday work camps. There is a growing requirement of quality in the search for these professionals, as in the case of municipalities’ recruitment.
Programa Formar+ has a dedicated training for "Técnico de Juventude".
Education, training and skills recognition
The training of "Técnico de Juventude" has 1025 hours of mandatory curricula, and another 100h at the choice of the trainee, that must have a field practice included. The curricula include a brief history of youth work, the general organization of the youth sector in Portugal and on the international level, programs and initiatives in the field of youth, youth empowerment and citizenship, institutional structure of participation of young people, project management, among many other topics. The curricula include workshop facilitation and some already existing training modules from the professional profile of the socio-cultural animator. Thus, the curricula profit from the historical background but aims at an independent realization of this new professional.
There is also a recent project called “Passe Jovem”, aiming at the recognition and validation of competences of young people involved in non-formal education, that bridges with formal education diploma in secondary school. The framework is based on a European grid of non-formal education competences areas.
Mobility of youth workers
Portuguese youth workers regularly do training and work at the international level. Programs like Formar+, also stimulate the Exchange of training and expertise between youth organizations.