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Grow With Purpose: Strengthening Your Digital Practice
Grow With Purpose: Strengthening Your Digital Practice
Content
This learning playlist guides youth workers through a reflective and practical journey to understand, assess, and develop their digital competencies using a competence-based approach.
Through a series of six activities, participants explore key concepts such as what competences are, how attitudes and values shape digital youth work practice, and how to assess and grow through self-awareness and strategic planning.
The playlist supports youth workers in identifying their learning needs, mapping digital development priorities, and drafting a personal development plan, equipping them to lead their own learning and contribute to digital transformation in youth work.
All activities are based on the Digital Competences in Youth Work (DYW SNAC) framework and include videos, self-assessment tools, and structured reflection tasks.
Included activities and badges:
- Start with You: What Competence Means in Digital Youth Work
- The Inner Shift: Exploring Attitudes for Digital Youth Work
- Know What Matters: Values in Digital Youth Work
- Facing Change: Growing in Digital Youth Work
- Where Are You Now? Understanding Your Digital Competencies
- My Way: Planning Your Digital Competencies Development
Who is this playlist for?
This playlist is for youth workers who want to understand how to use competence models to guide their professional development in digital youth work. It’s suitable for those starting out as well as experienced practitioners looking to reflect, plan, and grow strategically.
Claim the ultimate playlist badge
Complete all activities and collect the six linked badges to unlock the final badge that recognises your full learning journey and commitment to digital competence development.
Who created this resource?
This playlist and its activities were developed by members of the Cities of Learning Network as part of the DIGITAL SYSTEMIC project - an Erasmus+ co-funded cooperation partnership focused on the systemic development of digital youth work.
The content draws on the Digital Competences in Youth Work (DYW SNAC) framework, the YOCOMO MOOC, and resources co-created by strategic partnerships and national agencies across Europe. It integrates insights from multiple European research studies and tools supporting competence-based learning and digital transformation in youth work.
The learning design follows the standardised approach used on the Digital Youth Work platform and Cities of Learning, combining structured reflection, practical tasks, and Open Badge recognition to support lifelong learning and professional development.
Activities to complete
Complete the following activities, earn badges and you will see your playlist progress updated
Content
Digital transformation is reshaping the role of youth workers. As digital technologies become integral to youth work, understanding the concept of competence is essential.
This activity introduces youth workers to the competence-based approach as a foundation for professional development, particularly in the field of digital youth work. You will explore how competences, understood as a dynamic combination of attitudes, knowledge, skills, and behaviours, apply to digital contexts and support your role in fostering inclusive, safe, and meaningful digital experiences for young people.
By completing this activity, you will:
- Define what a competence is and why it matters in digital youth work
- Understand the value and structure of competence frameworks, especially for digital competences
- Recognise the benefits and challenges of a competence-based approach in the youth work context
- Reflect on your development as a digital youth worker and lifelong learner
Get Inspired
Watch the video: What is a competence and a competence-based approach?
Source: This video as part of the #YOCOMO – an #ETS online course on competence-based development for youth workers!
Other resources:
Watch the following videos on digital competencies:
Source: This video is part of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Digital Youth Work
Other resources:
- Explore: Competence Framework for Digital Youth Work Practice, Skill IT digital pathways for youth work.
- Read: Policy recommendations, training needs and good practice examples for youth workers and decision-makers: expert group set up under the European Union Work Plan for Youth for 2016-2018.
Take action
Task 1: Define term "competence" in your own words. Write a short paragraph on paper or in your reflective journal about what competence means to you as a youth worker. Include an example from your practice that illustrates how you demonstrated digital competence in youth work.
You can post your personal definition and example in a shared online space with other youth workers.
Task 2: Identify learning digital competencies from life experiences
Think of three situations (formal or informal) where you developed important digital competences, for example, using digital tools to engage young people, ensuring online safety, or navigating digital ethics.
Reflect on what you learned and which attitudes, skills, or knowledge were involved.
Make a mind-map with your examples on a paper or use a digital mind-mapping tool (e.g. Miro, Canva, or MindMeister) to illustrate your digital learning journey.
Task 3: Reflect on the competence-based approach in digital youth work
How can a competence-based approach support your development as a digital youth worker?
What are the opportunities and limitations when applying this approach to digital youth work in your organisation or context?
Record a short audio note, video reflection, or written response and share it in a youth workers forum or group online.
Claim Open Badge recognition
Upon completing this activity, participants can earn badges that recognise:
- Understanding of the competence-based approach in youth work;
- Ability to reflect on digital learning experiences and learning from them;
- Commitment to developing digital competences for inclusive and impactful youth work.
Who Created This Resource?
This activity is based on the video “What is a competence and a competence-based approach?”, developed as part of the Digital Youth Work Strategic Cooperation (DYW SNAC, 2023), with reference to the Youthpass, the ETS Competence Model for Youth Workers, and the Digital Competences in Youth Work framework. The Cities of Learning Network members adapted these resources to support the youth workers development of digital competencies.
Next Steps
Use the insights and reflections gathered during this activity to begin identifying your current strengths and development needs in digital youth work. Continue to the next activity: The Inner Shift: Exploring Attitudes for Digital Youth Work, where you will engage with a structured self-assessment tool. You can also connect your progress to national frameworks and share your learning with peers in digital youth work communities of practice.
Get activity badge
Foundations of Competence-Based Digital Youth Work Get this badge
Awarded to youth workers who have explored the meaning of competence, reflected on their digital learning experiences, and engaged with the competence-based approach as a tool for professional growth in digital youth work.
To earn this badge, youth workers needed:
- Submit a personal definition of competence with an example from digital youth work
- Identify at least three real-life digital learning experiences and link them to competences
- Reflect on how a competence-based approach can support your digital youth work practice
Skills and experiences gained
This badge aligns with the Digital Competences in Youth Work (DYW SNAC) framework:
- Shared guidelines and peer learning – including self-reflection, engaging in shared understanding, and peer-supported learning
- Self-reflection and lifelong learning – developing awareness of one’s own learning process and planning professional growth
- Learning and creativity with digital tools – using digital tools to support reflection and creativity in learning
- Expressing competence and facilitating recognition – beginning to articulate competences using appropriate language and tools
This badge shows the earner’s understanding of competence and their ability to reflect on digital learning experiences using a structured, competence-based approach. Cities of Learning Network partners value badge earners’ reflections and issue this badge after reviewing the submitted evidence.
Tasks
Task no.1
Evidence verified by: one activity organiser
Complete at least two of the following tasks by providing evidence to earn the "Foundations of Competence-Based Digital Youth Work" badge:
- Task 1: Submit a personal definition of competence with an example from digital youth work
- Evidence 1: Upload a written or recorded personal definition of competence with a digital youth work example
- Task 2: Identify at least three real-life digital learning experiences and link them to competences
- Evidence 2: A completed analogue or digital competence map with at least three examples
- Task 3: Reflect on how a competence-based approach can support your digital youth work practice
- Evidence 3: A reflection on benefits and challenges of the competence-based approach in digital youth work (text, audio, or video)
Skills
Activities: 6
Started: 1
Completed playlist: 0
Time to complete: 6 hours
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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.
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