A European Project to Enhance Youth Work through Artificial Intelligence: Official Launch of AI4YouthWork

The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has notably influenced both the significance and practical implementation of youth work in Europe. As AI systems have become increasingly present in young people’s lives, as well as in non-formal education settings, investing in the AI competence needs of youth professionals has become imperative. A new European initiative was started to address this need: the “Artificial Intelligence for Youth Work” (AI4YouthWork) project.

AI4YouthWork, a Cooperation partnership in the Youth field co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, officially started in March 2024. Over the next 24 months, a consortium of four organisations from Italy, Romania, Portugal and Greece, will undertake an ambitious agenda to support youth worker professionals in harnessing the potential of AI for their work. Particularly, the following key results will be produced during the project:

• Research on AI competence needs for youth workers, consolidating outcomes of desk research covering existing AI competence frameworks, literature and scientific papers, and focus groups with youth workers in the four participating countries;
• An innovative AI Competence Framework for Youth Workers covering key competence areas, knowledge, attitudes and skills needed by youth workers to effectively use and address AI in their work;
• A Digital Catalogue of multi-language eLearning experiences on AI addressed to youth workers and tailored to foster each competence outlined in the Competence Framework; 
• A map of free, web-based AI tools compliant with the ethical guidelines outlined by the EC's High-Level Expert Group on AI, covering AI applications that are relevant for youth workers; A collection of workshop plans to foster AI literacy among young people, encouraging critical thinking and responsible AI usage.