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Quality Assessment of Digital Youth Work
Quality Assessment of Digital Youth Work
Content
How do we know if digital youth work is meaningful, impactful, and worth scaling up?
Quality assessment is not about ticking boxes or chasing numbers, it is about listening, reflecting, and improving. Young people must have a say in defining what quality means to them. This activity introduces practical tools and reflective practices to help youth workers, managers, and young people assess and improve the quality of digital youth work.
By completing this activity, participants will:
- Recognise that quality in digital youth work can mean different things in different contexts.
- Learn how to collect feedback and evidence of impact in structured ways.
- Understand the importance of negotiation, long-term strategy, and systemic development in quality work.
- Explore tools for self-assessment at both individual and organisational levels.
- Identify concrete improvement actions that strengthen digital youth work practice.
Get Inspired
Start from watching Michele Di Paola’s expert input on Quality Assessment of Digital Youth Work. Some key take-aways:
- Digital youth work does not exist in a void.
- Young people should always have a say.
- Different contexts require different tools
- Numbers are not enough - growth, scale, and quality must be discussed together.
- Quality assessment is a process requiring readiness for systemic development
In another video, Andreas Karsten from Think & Do Tank Youth Policy Labs shared many insightful reflections about digital youth work:
work and activities they carry on to develop digital youth work
- Reasons for investing into digital youth work and what is exciting about this field of work.
- Suggestions for what youth workers should pay attention to when developing digital youth work practices.
- Ideas for evaluating the quality of digital youth work and examples of impactful practices.
- Perspective on how digital youth work practices can go hand in hand with policy developments.
- Recommendations on how youth workers can develop digital youth work practices.
Other inspiring resources:
- European Guidelines for Digital Youth Work highlight the need for reflection and quality assurance as essential for innovation and inclusion.
- The Assessment Tool for Digital Competences in Youth Work (DYW SNAC, 2023) supports individual reflection for youth workers.
- The Assessment Tool on Digital Capacities of Youth Work Organisations offers structured methods to evaluate organisational readiness for digital transformation
- RAY-DIGI research shows that successful digital youth work often involves ongoing evaluation and shared learning.
Take Action: activities for different roles
Explore the following role-specific badges to access activities focused on quality and assessment in digital youth work within the organisation. Navigate to a specific badge and complete activities as a youth worker and youth work manager. Involve young people in expressing what quality means to them and assessing digital youth work.
- Youth workers can facilitate a workshop with young people who can share what quality means to them by co-creating a “quality wall” and posting creative digital feedback (video, meme, poll).
- Youth workers can reflect with peers on successes and challenges in your digital practice, then complete the Digital Competence Self-Assessment Tool and set one improvement goal.
- Youth work managers can review your organisation’s strategy with staff to identify where digital quality is addressed, then use the Organisational Digital Capacity Assessment Tool to plan one systemic improvement.
Claim Open Badge Recognition
Earn the “Quality Assessor of Digital Youth Work” badge by completing the tasks:
- Young people: contribute meaningful feedback on digital youth work.
- Youth workers: complete a competence self-assessment and define one improvement action.
- Managers: conduct an organisational review and set a systemic improvement goal.
Who created this resource?
This activity is based on the expert input during the blended course on developing digital youth work strategies (visit activity) and the expert interview for the Massive Open Online Course on Digital Youth Work (watch Youtube channel).
The Cities of Learning Network members used the above resources to create activities supporting digital youth work developments:
- Awero, Lithuania (Project Lead)
- Breakthrough Foundation, Netherlands
- Curaçao Innovation & Technology Institute (CITI)
- TiPovej! Zavod - Institute for Creative Society, Slovenia
Next Steps: Introduce a regular cycle of feedback collection (both digital and analog). Organise peer-learning sessions to share self-assessment results and improvement goals. Experiment with “daring to fail” - pilot new digital elements, analyse results, and adapt. Integrate quality assessment into annual strategic reviews.
Get activity badge
Quality Assessment of Digital Youth Work Get this badge
How do we know if digital youth work is meaningful, impactful, and worth scaling up?
Quality assessment is not about ticking boxes or chasing numbers, it is about listening, reflecting, and improving. Young people must have a say in defining what quality means to them. This activity introduces practical tools and reflective practices to help youth workers, managers, and young people assess and improve the quality of digital youth work.
By completing this activity, participants will:
- Recognise that quality in digital youth work can mean different things in different contexts.
- Learn how to collect feedback and evidence of impact in structured ways.
- Understand the importance of negotiation, long-term strategy, and systemic development in quality work.
- Explore tools for self-assessment at both individual and organisational levels.
- Identify concrete improvement actions that strengthen digital youth work practice.
Get Inspired
Start from watching Michele Di Paola’s expert input on Quality Assessment of Digital Youth Work. Some key take-aways:
- Digital youth work does not exist in a void.
- Young people should always have a say.
- Different contexts require different tools
- Numbers are not enough - growth, scale, and quality must be discussed together.
- Quality assessment is a process requiring readiness for systemic development
In another video, Andreas Karsten from Think & Do Tank Youth Policy Labs shared many insightful reflections about digital youth work:
work and activities they carry on to develop digital youth work
- Reasons for investing into digital youth work and what is exciting about this field of work.
- Suggestions for what youth workers should pay attention to when developing digital youth work practices.
- Ideas for evaluating the quality of digital youth work and examples of impactful practices.
- Perspective on how digital youth work practices can go hand in hand with policy developments.
- Recommendations on how youth workers can develop digital youth work practices.
Other inspiring resources:
- European Guidelines for Digital Youth Work highlight the need for reflection and quality assurance as essential for innovation and inclusion.
- The Assessment Tool for Digital Competences in Youth Work (DYW SNAC, 2023) supports individual reflection for youth workers.
- The Assessment Tool on Digital Capacities of Youth Work Organisations offers structured methods to evaluate organisational readiness for digital transformation
- RAY-DIGI research shows that successful digital youth work often involves ongoing evaluation and shared learning.
Take Action: activities for different roles
Explore the following role-specific badges to access activities focused on quality and assessment in digital youth work within the organisation. Navigate to a specific badge and complete activities as a youth worker and youth work manager. Involve young people in expressing what quality means to them and assessing digital youth work.
- Youth workers can facilitate a workshop with young people who can share what quality means to them by co-creating a “quality wall” and posting creative digital feedback (video, meme, poll).
- Youth workers can reflect with peers on successes and challenges in your digital practice, then complete the Digital Competence Self-Assessment Tool and set one improvement goal.
- Youth work managers can review your organisation’s strategy with staff to identify where digital quality is addressed, then use the Organisational Digital Capacity Assessment Tool to plan one systemic improvement.
Claim Open Badge Recognition
Earn the “Quality Assessor of Digital Youth Work” badge by completing the tasks:
- Young people: contribute meaningful feedback on digital youth work.
- Youth workers: complete a competence self-assessment and define one improvement action.
- Managers: conduct an organisational review and set a systemic improvement goal.
Who created this resource?
This activity is based on the expert input during the blended course on developing digital youth work strategies (visit activity) and the expert interview for the Massive Open Online Course on Digital Youth Work (watch Youtube channel).
The Cities of Learning Network members used the above resources to create activities supporting digital youth work developments:
- Awero, Lithuania (Project Lead)
- Breakthrough Foundation, Netherlands
- Curaçao Innovation & Technology Institute (CITI)
- TiPovej! Zavod - Institute for Creative Society, Slovenia
Next Steps: Introduce a regular cycle of feedback collection (both digital and analog). Organise peer-learning sessions to share self-assessment results and improvement goals. Experiment with “daring to fail” - pilot new digital elements, analyse results, and adapt. Integrate quality assessment into annual strategic reviews.
Tasks
Task no.1
Issued by organiser or scanning QR code
Participate in activity
Skills
#Fair Level. Engages young people in critical reflection of their online experiences - what they finally feel they have learned from the various experiences.
#Excellent Level. Engages young people on equal footing in the planning, running and evaluation of digital activities; they are an integral part of the strategic approach to digital transformation.
#Excellent Level. Shares practices, as a member of a network, which meets regularly and aims at developing digital youth work.
#Excellent Level. Constantly assess, together with young people and/or other youth workers on the quality of the digital work and reflects what has been learned; as an intentional process part of the digital youth work strategy.
#Excellent Level. Implements a process, designed with organisation, through which assess together with young people the individual and organisational priorities/needs connected to digital transformation.
#Good Level. Plans and implements multiple digital youth work activities, using a diversity of digital tools
#Fair Level. Askes young people to critically assess the practices of the youth work offering.
#Excellent Level. Supports young people and other youth workers to set goals for meaningful digital youth work, assess them and reflect jointly on the outcomes.
Organisers
Digital Youth Work Resource Hub
Awero not-for-profit organisation manages this platform and develops it together with leading educational organisations. The European Union's programme Erasmus+ granted co-funding for building the first version of this platform. Contact support@awero.org.
Platform
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