This section of the Visible Value aims to provide a quick overview of the state of the affairs about the recognition of youth work in the countries covered by EU-CoE Youth Partnership. In total it covers 53 country profiles (including 3 profiles for Belgium and 4 profiles for the UK).

The content in this section is based on several sources, including:

The sources of information are indicated at the end of each profile.

Back Portugal

In Portugal, there is no specific concept of youth work and no legal definition. Speaking of “youth work” nowadays, in Portugal, however, we can approach a close meaning in the expression “work with and for young people” (trabalho com e para jovens). It is, however, a very broad range of interventions, situations, actors, implying generally and mainly non-formal education, private and public institutions, and an intervention with ages ranging from 10 to 35 years old.

As such, the notion of a modern youth policy can be the optimal combination of the “for”, thus having young people and Youth as recipients or target audience, and the “with”, that is, guaranteeing their decisive participation and self-determination at all institutional and procedural levels of action in the field that latu sensu is called “Youth sector” on a daily basis.

Having this in mind the broad scope of work with Youth, mainly through non-formal education, both in public as well as in private sector, essentially through non-profitable activity, we, therefore, can find multiple ways and contexts of practice: volunteers, members of youth organizations, scouts, trainers, socio-cultural animators, civil servants from central and regional structures, and central and local powers, all working in the most diverse and transversal activities and places with and for youth.

Likewise, and on an emblematic basis, on December 8, 2015, the first professional profile of a Youth Worker was published in the National Qualifications Catalog. It was build aiming to coincide with a certain idea of Youth Worker in Portugal, hereinafter referred to as “Técnico de Juventude”.

This means officially a professional whose purpose is to: “Intervene in the design, organization, development and evaluation of projects, programs and activities with and for young people, using methodologies in the field of non-formal education, facilitating and promoting citizenship, participation, autonomy, inclusion and personal, social development and cultural.”

Thus, with the integration in the CNQ (National Qualifications Catalogue) and the formal institutional definition as a profession, based on a rigorous set of objectives, qualifications, competences and training profile, a new standard of quality was achieved and a new ambition to develop this kind of activity gained space.

Plus, the profile has been built based on some principles present in the European youth work portfolio of the Council of Europe, having in mind the national context and the joint work with the young people themselves, including youth workers and the main representative platforms such as the National Youth Council (CNJ) and FNAJ (National Federation of Youth Organizations), under the supervising technical role of IPDJ and the political support of the State Secretary for Youth and Sport, that had already developed a unique tour around the country to listen to young people and their organizations, in-person (Roteiro do Associativismo).

Finally, the professional profile of the youth worker is a level 4 EQF standard, with double certification, allowing the professional certificate and the access to the 12th-grade degree of secondary school education, building bridges between non-formal and formal education.

However, following the best practices in the field of professional requirements today, there is no mandatory obligation for someone who wants to be a “youth worker”, or to “work with or young people” to have the professional degree of Técnico de Juventude. Nevertheless, the several different contexts of intervention require their own sets of competencies: for example, a trainer must have training for trainers degree, a socio-cultural animator has its own professional profile, civil servants are recruited based on formal criteria, and so on.

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.

The professional profile of Técnico de Juventude has a complement tool called RVCC or profile for the recognition of competences, aimed to allow people who work in the youth field to require, if interested, the access to the degree of Técnico de Juventude. This process is certified by the ANQEP, and Qualifica centres, a program for adult education and qualification.

(From the Youth Wiki)