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1. Quality assurance

2. Research and evidence supporting Youth Work

3. Participate Youth Work

4. Smart youth work: youth work in the digital world

Quality assurance 

Guidelines for quality assurance of youth work were developed by the National Association of Youth Work Practitioners - NAPOR in 2009. The document provides details of basic types of youth work, and the principles and values on which it is based.

The quality assurance framework developed by the NAPOR consists of: 

• Accreditation of organisations delivering youth work 
• Professionalism of human resources 
• Ethics in youth work  
• Passport of competences / recognition of competences gained by young people through youth work programmes.  

Accreditation of organisations 

NAPOR developed a set of eight standards that each youth work programme should fulfil. A mechanism for their implementation is based on willingness of member organizations to participate in an accreditation process. The process during which the fulfilment of each standard is checked includes self-assessment and assessment of an accreditor - a person with experience in youth work and advanced supervision skills. The organizations that go through the process get the certificate of Accredited organization for implementation and promotion of quality standards in youth work. Accreditation is valid for three years and followed with the re-accreditation process. Since 2015, accreditation is one of the mandatory conditions for full membership in NAPOR. Accreditation is recognized by the member organizations as well as by the Ministry of Tourism and Youth.  

Professionalism of human resources  

NAPOR created professional standardsfor three youth work levels - Youth Leader, Youth Worker and Specialist for Youth Work and Policy, while curriculum for education of youth workers, containing training programmes, have been developed for the two vocational levels:

• Youth Leader and
• Youth Worker.

In addition, it contains a mechanism for validation of previously attained competences in youth work. The validation process is intended for persons who implement youth work in practice and continuously work on self-improvement but have no comprehensive formal or non-formal education in youth work. For those practitioners, it is possible to prove the competences that they gained through experience and different training courses in front of board of experts, in order to gain certificate for one of two vocational levels. 

Those who do not have the necessary experience for validation, can go through the training programme. It consists of five theoretical modules for Youth Leaders and four for Youth Workers, and practice in youth work (More details on Education of Youth Wokers available at 10.5 Youth Workers. In this case too, NAPOR issues certificates for all the participants who fulfil the set of competences needed for the vocational level they are trained for. These certificates are also recognized by memberorganizations and by the Ministry of Tourism and Youth. 

Ethics in youth work  

NAPOR developed Code of Ethics in Youth Work and formed Council for Ethical Issues. Code of Ethics is a document which defines ethical and professional principles of youth work and each organization and each youth worker binds to respect them. Council for Ethical Issues is an independent body in NAPOR which takes care that Code of Ethics is respected and promoted. 

Passport of competences / recognition of competences gained by young people through youth work programmes

Creation of tool for recognition of competences of young people gained through youth work programmes (Passport of Competences) is implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Youth and Sports and other relevant actors from public, private and civil sector. The main benefits of the Passport of Competences refer to recognition of transferable skills, more efficient planning and personal improvement of young people, recognition of youth work impact on development of young people, all of them fostering youth employability. 

Research and evidence supporting Youth Work

As generally described in Chapter 1.6 Evidence-based youth policy, there is no specific research system that follows the development of youth work. The national authorities fund a general research on the position and needs of young people or an evaluation of the implementation of the national youth strategy, however, there is a lack of a continuous and systematic approach regarding evidence-based youth work research.

Nevertheless, sporadic research in the field of youth which also provide updated statistics on youth and sometimes youth work is carried out either by the Ministry or by other institutions:

• The Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia 
• The Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit 
• Institute for Sociological Research and the  Institute for Psychology of the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade;
• The Institute of Social Sciences, STAR Center for Behavioral Research in Psychology and the Department for Psychology (Faculty for Philosophy, University in Novi Sad)
• Institute for Educational Research - independent scientific institution dealing with theoretical and empirical studies in the field of education
• Center for Political Research and Public Opinion of the Institute of Social Sciences in Belgrade
• The Institute of Economic Sciences in Belgrade
• The Institute for Development and Innovation
• Various non-governmental organisations that conduct research on youth position and needs, youth employment, youth policy, etc.

A diverse range of NGOs conduct surveys regarding youth issues, yet NAPOR as being an organisation mostly oriented towards youth work, since its establishment has conducted several areas of research. As listed in CoE Country sheet on youth work in Serbia, research studies done by NAPOR and partners are:

• Cross-section of the situation of youth work in Serbia (2010) – The aim of the research was to gain an insight into the general state of youth work in Serbia, in relation to the adequacy of human resources, the structure of users and sources of funding for youth work programmes.
• Impact of non-formal education in youth work on competence acquisition for better employability of young people (2014) -The research was carried out by the National Association of Practitioners of Youth Work (NAPOR) with the support of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of the Republic of Serbia, the USAID Sustainable Local Development Project and the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Team of the Government of the Republic of Serbia.
• Mapping Study on EU practices in recognition of competences gained through non-formal learning in youth work for the employability of young people (2014)  – the study based on recommendations, studies, research and documentation related to non-formal education in youth work, its recognition and impact on youth employability, as well as analysis of existing mechanisms at EU and individual level.
• National Report, Serbia: “Needs for new services that stimulate the employability and role of youth work” (2015) – a research on the attitudes of relevant stakeholders on the employability of marginalised young people.
• Researching educational needs of practitioners of youth work (2017)
• Youth work uprising beyond the borders - Serbia and Estonia learning from (and with) each other (2020). funded by the Tempus Foundation (Serbian National Agency) through the ERASMUS+ program. The project aimed to introduce potential for improvement in youth work practices in both Serbia and Estonia by exchanging good practices, analyzing know-hows and creating recommendations on national level.
• "Under the Loupe: Young People in Villages“ (2020) - The research concerns rural youth work in Serbia and it aimed to create a national strategy for rural youth work.

In addition to the above research projects, NAPOR has developed a collection book of good educational practices for youth workers within the project: “Youth work and youth workers across Europe - good examples from practice about volunteering, employment, education and training ".

Additionaly, Act as Professionals - Training module for the use of professional principles in youth work (2022), funded under the Erasmus+ Innovation Strategic partnership in the field of Youth project „Act as Professionals - Improvement of the youth work practice with young people with fewer opportunities“ (ref. no 2020-1-RS01-KA205-065296). The main idea was to create a new, dynamic training module for youth workers, with the focus of enhancing the quality of the use of professional principles in the youth work practice with youth with fewer opportunities. The publication includes analysis of the overall framework for conducting youth work initiatives, challenges that youth workers are facing when implementing youth work activities, and a Traning Module, providing trainers of youth workers a comprehensive guide on how to implement the training module for enhancing the skills of youth workers. 

Analysis of the youth work issues have been performed within evaluations of the youth strategic documents in the Republic of Serbia:

• Тhe evaluation of the National Youth Strategy (NYS) of the Republic of Serbia, adopted in 2008, and its Action Plan (AP) 2009 – 2014
• Ex-ante Analysis of the National Strategy for Youth (2021)
• Ex-post Analysis of the Effects of the National Strategy for Youth (2015-2025), (2021)

Important research contributions in the field of youth also covering youth work issues include:

• Survey on Position and Needs of Youth in the Republic of Serbia – field research (December 2023 – February 2024). 
• Youth Entrepreneurship, NEET Employability and Youth Career Management Skills in Serbia (2022) which provides analysis of key issues related to strengthening youth employability and youth policy institutional framework with regard to introduction of the Youth Guarantee program piloting in Serbia. 

Strategy for Youth in the Republic of Serbia  for the period from 2023 to 2030 stipulates use of research evidence in order to implement credible policies in the field of youth work. For that purpose, Under Output Indicator 1 of the Measure 1.5 - Research and knowledge management in the field of youth work and non-formal education of young people are continuously conducted, it is envisaged realisation of at least 9 annual surveys on youth and youth work based on representative sample. 

Additionally, National Youth Council of Serbia (Krovna Organizacija Mladih Srbije – KOMS), as an advocacy platform, is also important contributor conducting research in the field of youth which represent basis for its advocacy efforts.

The Foundation Tempus is member of the Research-based Analysis and Monitoring of Erasmus+: Youth in Action Programme, which provides evidence to better understanding of the processes and outcomes in youth work and non-formal education. Serbia is included in RAY Monitoring research which aims to explore a broad scope of aspects of the Erasmus+: Youth in Action Programme in order to contribute to practice development, improving the implementation of Erasmus+: Youth in Action and to the development of the next programme generation.

Participative youth work

Young peoples participation in decision-making in general is described in Chapter 5.4 Young people's participation in policy-making.

Specific participation in youth work related policies is enabled through the digital platform Structural Dialogue. This platform gives the opportunity to young people to comment on different initiatives of public authorities, on youth policies, and to provide their opinions that will be included in public hearings on different subjects. One such possibility is to leave a comment, recommendation or opinion on the Law on Youth as well as strategic goals related to youth work mentioned in Ch.10.3 Support to youth work Policy/legal framework. 

The National Youth Council of Serbia - KOMS together with the Ministry of Youth and Sport in 2020 conducted a project Young people have an advantage. During the implementation of the program, the idea was to strengthen existing partnerships with relevant youth policy actors at the local, national and international levels, as well as to create sustainable, long-term and quality programmes that would be a consequence of intersectoral and interdepartmental cooperation. Within this project, the fourth Academy of Youth Policy will be realized, a dialogue of young people with the Minister of Youth and Sports, dialogues of young people from marginalized groups with local decision makers, digital solutions for further development of youth policy, etc. will be established.

With a support of UNICEF, NAPOR conducted research on potentials and barriers for greater youth participation in policy making processes in Serbie entitled "Youth in Serbia - Participation: Possibilities and Obstacles" (2022). Research aimed to provide answers to the following questions – Types of youth participation in conducting youth policy, attitudes towards participation, participation patterns, main barriers and challenges, and characteristics of the youth organisations dealing with youth participation issues. As one the main barriers for greater youth participation research identified lack of youth workers and underdeveloped youth work in the field. 

"Smart" youth work: youth work in the digital world

Following European Declaration on Youth Work, education of youth workers in using online tools has been incorporated into the Strategy for Youth in the Republic of Serbia  for the period from 2023 to 2030. Implementation of the Measure 1.2 - A quality assurance system for youth work and non-formal youth education programmes has been established and will be verified through achievement of the Indicator 4 - The number of digital programmes of youth work on an annual level, which are in accordance with the standards for ensuring the quality of the programmes, with a targeted value of 10 on annual basis. 

Under the Project “The first decade of recognizing youth work” NAPOR organised  a series of online seminars, trainings, publications and podcasts targeting youth workers and providing support digitalisation of youth work.. Within the project, seven digital youth clubs were organized.A special attention is given to the digital tools that can be used to link young people during realization of youth work programmes.  

Moreover, from 2018, a component of the Erasmus+ programme that supports the mobility of youth workers is available to youth organizations. The aim is to enhance their professional development through different training courses, seminars, job shadowing etc. Equipping youth workers with digital competences and increasing participation of youth are frequently addressed in project topics. 

Under the Framework of European Wide Web of Youth Work’, a Capacity Building Project within the Erasmus+: Youth in Action programme, and in consortium with 5 partnering institutions, NAPOR developed a A Practical Manual with tools to design and facilitate online training of youth workers including real life experiences and examples. The publication has been prepared with a purpose of promoting the concept of online learning to organisations active in the youth field, providing practical tool for trainers and youth workers.