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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

Youth workers as recognized agents of youth work are employed within the body of Ministry of Youth and Sports. These youth workers are youth and sports experts and youth leaders. 

Within the youth centers affiliated with the Ministry of Youth and Sports, youth leaders are trained to facilitate coordination between management and young people, guide them, and assist in the preparation and implementation of activity programs. The training and education of the youth leaders, which account for an important portion of youth workers in Turkey are regulated by the Directive by the Ministry of Youth and Sports on Principles and Procedures of Development, Training, and Working of Youth Leaders. In this document, trainings, development and certification of youth leadership are specified in a detailed manner. Individuals who successfully complete youth leadership training program organized by the Ministry are certified as youth leaders.

According to the Youth Leadership Directive of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, youth leaders participate in the first-level training. The subjects of the first-level training courses delivered to the youth leaders as required in the the Directive by the Ministry of Youth and Sports on Principles and Procedures of Development, Training, and Working of Youth Leaders are as follows:

• Ministry of Youth and Sports
• Youth Centers
• Leadership and Youth Leadership
• Institutional Culture
• Fundraising/Sponsorship
• Relations with Non-governmental Organizations
• Project Cycle and Stakeholder Analysis
• Volunteering
• Community and Disadvantaged Groups
• Historical and Cultural Values
• Values Training
• Thematic Training Courses
• Fighting Harmful Habits
• Event Design
• Event Groups (Drama, Theater, Music, Literature, Folk Dances, etc.)
• Fundamental Rights and Liberties
• Youth Psychology
• Developing Youth-Friendly Approach (Peer Training)
• Youth Information
• Time Management
• Problem Solving
• Team Management/Group Work
• Communication Skills
• Etiquette
• Diction
• Motivation
• Social Media and Internet

Youth leader candidates who successfully complete the First Level Training receive practical training. Youth leader candidates undergo a two-week practical training period in youth center within the Ministry. Individuals who successfully complete practical training in youth centers are awarded “Youth Leader Certificate”.

Apart from the youth workers employed in the Ministry, there are youth workers working in NGOs, however they have not a professional recognition and standart career plan.

Research and evidence supporting Youth Work

Law no 5018 requires that all public organizations draw up a strategic plan, performance schedule and activity report. Therefore, political commitment to evidence-based practices of youth work fulfilled by the Ministry of Youth and Sports is guaranteed by law as well as in the work carried out by other Ministries.

Priorities, performance targets and resource requirements are determined with the performance schedule drawn up within the Strategic Plan. In accordance with the targets determined in these documents, an activity report is drawn up in which results of the activities, performance targets and realizations as well as deviations and causes are presented. Thus, the success achieved in the priority, target and performance activities of the youth policy is statistically evaluated.

The authority responsible for Official Statistic Program in Turkey is Turkish Statistical Institute. Turkish Statistical Institute reports “Youth with Statistics” (İstatistiklerle Gençlik) annually. However, given the fact that the statistical data provided by Turkish Statistical Institute are not sufficient in order to measure whole of the achievements and failures/inadequacies in the field of youth work, a database titled "Database for Youth Information" created by the Ministry of Youth and Sports is in progress.

Participate Youth Work

Participation into youth work is ensured in two ways: the participation through public authorities and participation through NGO's. Both alternatives include the engagement of youth workers either recognized by public authorities or singled out in terms of experience in non-governmental youth sector. Besides this, volunteering without being a professional youth worker accounts for a significant youth work done in Turkey. 

After the adoption of new governmental system, with the issuing of Presidential Decree 1 dated 10/07/2018, enhancing of the volunteering activities and promoting civil consciousness on volunteering among youngsters have been specified as the task of the Ministry. This legal basis has provided an impetus for the betterment of existing National Volunteering Programme. Also there is an ongoing process for preparing a statue law dedicated to volunteering. National Volunteering Programme is by and large aimed at young volunteers performing youth work since these volunteering activities consist in the efforts targetting youth empowerment and youth participation. 

Smart youth work: youth work in the digital world

The "GönüllüyüzBİZ" (We are Volunteers) Platform which serves as an efficient tool to incorporate more young people into youth work operates through a web platform whereby young volunteers and voluntary organization can find each other. This web platform has developed into a mobile phone application which provides young people and youth organisations with an opportunity to contact each other more readily and to work out the voluntary youth work in chorus.

The “GSB BİZ” Platform, implemented by the Ministry of Youth and Sports aims to consolidate digital transactions of young people and athletes under a single roof. The GSB BİZ Platform aims to enable students residing in dormitories of the Ministry of Youth and Sports to perform all dormitory transactions instantly through the application, to be informed about youth projects of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, to participate in the projects, to become environmentally conscious and voluntary individuals and to find everything they are looking for in the digital environment under this platform. Through the "SporcuyuzBiz" (We Are Athletes) tab on the platform, sports enthusiasts can obtain information about sports facilities, make appointments from the facilities, access the documents they need and follow domestic and international sports activities.