STRATEGIC PLAN FOR STRENGTHENING PRACTICAL SKILLS AND CAPACITIES FOR ORGANIZING

NON-FORMAL EDUCATION FOR JELGAVA YOUTH

The strategic plan has been created by Rasa Žilionė (VšĮ “Žinių kodas”, Lithuania) within framework of Youth in Action Programme Sub-action 4.3 – Youth support systems: Support to Youth Workers’ Mobility project “ESINE: Inter-organizational learning: Employability and Social Inclusion through Non-formal Education of young people” (ref.no. 550418-YFE1-1-2013-1-LT-YOUTH-Y43c).

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© European Union, 2014 The content of this publication does not reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Responsibility for the information and views expressed in the publication lies entirely with the author. VšĮ “Žinių kodas” (Knowledge Code) E-mail: info@ziniukodas.lt Phone: +370 677 83374 Website: www.ziniukodas.lt

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABOUT  JELGAVA  IN  BRIEF  ...........................................................................................................................  6  

STATUS  QUO  ANALYSIS  OF  YOUTH  IN  JELGAVA  ................................................................................  7  

POSSIBILITIES  FOR  FORMAL  AND  NON-­‐FORMAL  EDUCATION  IN  JELGAVA  .....................  10  

RECOMMENDED  ACTIONS  FOR  STRENGHENING  PRACTICAL  SKILLS  AND  CAPACITIES  

FOR  ORGANIZNING  NON-­‐FORMAL  EDUCATION  .............................................................................  13  

REFERENCES  ...................................................................................................................................................  17  

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. Youth organizations in Jelgava

Table 2. Youth employment (age 15-29, percentage)

Table 3. Registered unemployment rate in Jelgava (percentage)

Table 4. Young people at risk of poverty or exclusion (age 15-29, percentage)

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GLOSSARY OF KEY TERMS

Capability is the ability to perform or achieve certain actions or outcomes through a

set of controllable and measurable faculties, features, functions, processes, or services.

 

Europass is a portfolio of five different documents and an electronic folder aiming to

contain descriptions of the entire holder's learning achievements, official qualifications, work

experience, skills and competences, acquired over time. These documents are: the Europass

CV, the Diploma Supplement, the Certificate Supplement, the Europass Mobility and the

Language Passport. Europass also includes the European Skills Passport, a user-friendly

electronic folder that helps the holder to build up a personal, modular inventory of his/her

skills and qualifications. The aim of Europass is to facilitate mobility and improve job and

lifelong learning prospects in Europe.

Non-formal education is understood as an organized educational process, which takes

place alongside mainstream systems of education and training, and does not typically lead to

certification. Individuals participate on a voluntary basis and the individual is usually aware

that he/she is learning – unlike in informal learning. Often, non-formal education in youth

organizations is articulated through learning in groups, interactive, participatory and

experiential methodologies.

Skills. In the context of European Qualifications Framework (EQF), skills are

described as (1) cognitive (involving the use of logical, intuitive and creative thinking), and

(2) practical (involving manual dexterity and the use of methods, materials, tools and

instruments).

Youth (young persons) is individuals aged between 13 and 30.

Youth centre is a place where friendly, open and supporting environment for young

people with different interests and life experience is available. The objective of the centre is

to create a possibility for the youth to gather together, to plan a good usage of their time, to

receive information in compliance with their needs and interests, to give support to drafting

and implementing projects. Youth centre cooperates with different persons, who are involved

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in youth policy implementation process (different institutions of municipalities, youth

organizations, as well as with state administrative institutions).

Youth organization is a society that is registered in the register of associations and

foundations and in the list of youth organizations, where are registered organizations that

meet several criteria defined in the law – (1) one of the purposes of activity specified in the

statutes of the association is youth work, the promotion of youth initiatives and participation

in decision-making and social life; (2) the association carries out youth work and tasks of the

association defined in the statutes correspond to at least three main tasks defined in the third

part of the article 2.1. of the law; (3) at least two thirds of the members of the association are

children and young people or also several associations, where in total at least two thirds of

the members are children and young people; and (4) participation of young people is ensured

in administrative institutions of the association, and the procedures for this participation are

specified in the statutes of the respective association.

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ABOUT  JELGAVA  IN  BRIEF  

Jelgava is located in the central part of Latvia – in the northern part of Zemgale plain,

on the banks of the second largest river in Latvia – Lielupe. Jelgava is the largest city of

Zemgale planning region and, according to territory and population, ranks fourth among the

cities in Latvia.

Territory: 60,32 km2. Situated just 42 km away from Riga.

Population: 64 279. Proportion of men in the city is 45,8% (in Latvia - 46,1%). Natural

growth of population in Jelgava, just like all around Latvia, unfortunately is negative.

Ethnic composition: 57,3% Latvians, 27,8% Russians, 5,7% Belarusians, 2,7%

Ukrainians, 2% Poles, 1,4% Lithuanians, 1,2% Romanians, 1,9% other (2012).

There is a comparatively high proportion of people of working age – 66,3%; in Latvia

it is 65,7% on average.

Jelgava is the capital of students, suburb of Riga, strong regional centre, developing

city. It is notable industrial, administrative, educational and culture centre.

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STATUS  QUO  ANALYSIS  OF  YOUTH  IN  JELGAVA

Jelgava is “young” city according to the population. It is one of the highest share

(15.3%) of youth in the total city population in Latvia. Therefore, youth issues are very

significant in the city. There are several organizations dealing with youth problems in

Jelgava (see Table 1).

Table 1. Youth organizations in Jelgava

Izglītības inovāciju pārneses centrs

Education Innovation Transfer Centre

http://www.iipc.lv/

Zemgales NVO Centrs Zemgale NGO Centre http://www.zemgalei.lv/ Latvijas Studentu apvienība

Latvia Students Union

http://www.lsa.lv/

Jaunatnes starptautisko programmu aģentūra

Agency for International Programmes for Youth

http://jaunatne.gov.lv/

Latvijas Pilsoniskā alianse

Civic Alliance-Latvia

http://nvo.lv/

Jelgavas Skolēnu Dome

Jelgava Pupils' Council

http://jsd.jelgava.lv/

Bērnu un jauniešu mūzikas klubs

Children and Youth Club

http://bjmk.lv/

"Kovārsnis"

“Jackdaw” http://kovarnis.eclub.lv/

“Post Scriptum” “Post Scriptum” N.A. LLU Studējošo pašpārvalde

Students' Council of the Latvia University of Agriculture

http://www.llusp.lv/

Bērnu un jauniešu centrs “JUNDA”

Children and Youth Centre “JUNDA”

http://www.junda.lv/

Youth organizations in Jelgava have their own activities and they are running them

according their own vision and mission. It was noticed that youth organizations cooperate

within their activities or projects at national level insufficiently.

Mostly State Employment Office deals with youth unemployment. Although means

for reducing unemployment is used in proper way, rate of youth unemployment is still high

in Latvia. Less than half of young people are employed (see Table 2). As the Latvian labour

market has recovered during recent years, unemployment remains a key problem affecting

young people.

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Table 2. Youth employment (age 15-29, percentage)

Source: Eurostat, 2014

Youth unemployment rate in Latvia is projected to trend around 20.13, 20.12 and 20.12

percent in the years of 2020, 2030 and 2050 respectively. In 2015, youth unemployment rate

is expected to decrease to 19.15 percent.

Table 3. Registered unemployment rate in Jelgava (percentage)

Source: Jelgava in Figures, 2013

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Unemployment rate in Jelgava is 6.2 percent. Jelgava has one of the lowest

unemployment levels in the state (see Table 3). As capital of Latvia (Riga) is not far away

from Jelgava, many inhabitants of Jelgava work in Riga district as well.

The main reasons of youth unemployment are (1) lack of practical skills; (2)

mismatching needs of labour market; (3) lack of initiative taking and motivation. Young

people leave school due to lack of motivation, sometimes the economic, cultural and social

circumstances of the young people are the cause to stop studying. They do not realize the

importance of a good training and its consequences for their future and employment.

Next problem, youth organizations should deal with is young people at risk of poverty

or exclusion. Comparing the Baltic Sates, Latvia has the highest rate of this indicator

(see Table 4).

Table 4. Young people at risk of poverty or exclusion (age 15-29, percentage)

Source: Eurostat, 2014

Jelgava has an issue to deal with social inclusion of people at risk of poverty or

exclusion. One of the highest numbers of the Roma people was found in Jelgava after

Ventspils (1151) and Riga (1078), 1041 Roma people are living in the city. For example, the

Jelgava city council revealed that 60% of the 30 Roma who were interviewed were illiterate.

Under such circumstances, they need special attention to social integration into society’s life.

Several projects such as “ESINE: Inter-organizational learning: Employability and

Social Inclusion through Non-formal Education of young people”, “Musical stop for

reducing children and young people exclusion in Jelgava old city” and others are running for

reducing youth social exclusion in Jelgava.

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POSSIBILITIES  FOR  FORMAL  AND  NON-­‐FORMAL  EDUCATION  IN  JELGAVA  

The high status of education in Latvia is reflected in many ways. First, compulsory

education was extended to 11 years, including two years of preschool education. Second, the

increasing participation in upper secondary education is indicative of the general striving for

advanced educational merits as well as, clearly, reflective of the rather bad reputation of

vocational and professional tracks. This development causes great concern among Latvian

authorities and systematic attempts to anticipate processes of matching labour market are still

at an early stage. Third, involvement in higher education, especially at the Bachelor and

Masters level, has become a popular way of postponing career decisions among young

people and of escaping the labour market that characterised youth transitions in Latvia until

recently. The popularity of doctoral studies, however, is very low and institutions are starting

to have problems with ensuring an academic succession. Fourth, educational reform is at the

core of Latvian policies towards minorities. The school reform of 2004 introduced extensive

compulsory teaching in Latvian in minority schools (for example, Russian schools, etc.),

Fifth, Latvia has a strong and excellent tradition of hobby and interest education, providing

large proportions of the youth population with opportunities for meaningful out-of-school

activities.

Jelgava municipality supports 38 educational establishments, including 9 public and 8

privately owned preschool educational establishments, 3 elementary schools, 7 secondary

schools, 2 boarding-schools, 2 crafts schools, 1 school of arts, 1 music school, 3 sports

schools, 1 specialized school for disabled children.

In Jelgava on the basis of formal education (vocational training), it is possible to get

qualification of several professions such as cook, assistant cook, pastry cook, hairdresser,

CNC machine tool programmer, costume stylist, retail businessman, assembly locksmith and

others.

In order to gain experience in certain field it could be achieved in non-formal way

during volunteering activities. But according to European Voluntary Service (EVS) Register,

unfortunately there is no any EVS accredited organization in Jelgava. Volunteering is not

very common in the city. A message was noticed that Social Care Centre "Jelgava", Children

and Youth Centre “JUNDA” invite volunteers to help them in their activities.

There are two main training centres: (1) Zemgale Region Human Resource and

Competences Development Centre; (2) The Latvian Rural Advisory and Training Centre.

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Jelgava inhabitants have a possibility to improve their competencies in these training centres.

Usually they are concerned to adult education, but the most part of attending persons in the

trainings are young people.

While community-based sport programs are also used as non-formal learning tool,

sport institutions perform important role in Jelgava. There are several sport institutions:

Sports Service Centre, Zemgale Olympic Centre, Jelgava Children and Youth Sports School,

Jelgava Specialized Swimming School, Jelgava Tennis Centre, Recreation and Sports Centre

“Zemgale”.

Jelgava is remarkable for its rich history and significant traditional values, therefore

museums education is used for non-formal learning. There are even 8 museums in the city:

Jelgava History and Art Museum named after Gederts Eliass; Palace Museum; Crypt of

Dukes of Kurzeme, branch of Rundāle Palace Museum; Memorial Museum of Ādolfs

Alunāns; Branch of the Latvia Railway Museum; Psyhoneurology Hospital Museum;

Museum of Southern Electrical Power Network; History exhibitions of Jelgava Regional

Tourist Centre in St. Trinity Church Tower.

Every year many events are organized in the city; the most important are the

International Ice Sculptures festival and Jelgava City festival. There are many public spaces

and green spaces that can be used for different purposes (sports, leisure, etc.).

Table 5. Youth participation in non-formal education and training

(age 15-29, percentage)

Source: Eurostat, 2014

Although there are several tools and means used for non-formal education, we have a

strange situation where Latvia (comparing with other Baltic States countries) has quite low

percentage of youth participation in non-formal education and training (see Table 5). And in

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general, non-formal education in Latvia is accredited in a non-systematic way and there are

no state regulations on validation of prior learning and work experience. Therefore

recognition of non-formal education is poor in all country. As formal education in Latvia has

strong position, non-formal education is not always recognized as skills development.

Mostly employees pay attention to formal education and its qualification.

   

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RECOMMENDED  ACTIONS  FOR  STRENGHENING  PRACTICAL  SKILLS  AND  CAPACITIES  FOR  ORGANIZNING  NON-­‐FORMAL  EDUCATION  

Youth organizations are very important for strengthening practical skills and capacities

for organizing non-formal education for Jelgava youth. First of all, youth organizations in

Jelgava should follow not only Youth Policy in Latvia, but also EU Youth Strategy, Europe

2020 strategy and other strategic documents or insights.

In order to encourage youth to participate in practical non-formal education, activation

of youth organizations is needed. It means that different youth organizations should be very

active and members of theses organizations should have very good skills in the field they are

working at but also they should have such “soft competences” in the fields as teamwork,

public relations, relationship management, resource management, etc. Therefore,

organizations working with youth should improve their competences during training courses

and workshops, getting the best practices examples. Youth workers or leaders should

participate in Erasmus+ and other programmes, which offer possibilities to develop

competences. Enriching professional and organizational competencies of youth workers or

leaders let them operate as multiplier and enable them to strengthen practical skills and

capacities for organizing non-formal education for youth.

Youth workers or leaders could learn from sharing experience and the best practices

not only local or regional level but also at international level. International cooperation let

broaden the point of view and stimulate to “think out the box”. Besides this, partnering for

youth organizations provides more power in the policy making and more opportunities for

youth. For example, if youth organization joins the projects running by other organizations,

more activities could be offered to the youth.

Quality youth participation, based on the principle of equality of perspectives and

partners, requires young people to be able, capable and motivated to make use of relevant

information. As it is some activities where Jelgava’s youth could develop their practical

skills and capacities via non-formal education, Youth Information Centre in Jelgava could be

established. The Centre could join all organizations organizing activities using methods of

non-formal education. Also this Centre could have a function of counselling and professional

orientation. It would be an intermediary among youth, different non-formal education

institutions and representatives of labour market. Common website could be developed

where various opportunities for youth would be presented (for example, not only youth

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organizations, their contacts, but also events dedicated to youth, running youth projects, the

best practices examples, volunteering possibilities, articles with the aim to motivate youth to

be active, etc.).

Recognition of non-formal education is crucial factor to motivate youth to participate

in non-formal education. Therefore, organizations operating in the field of non-formal

education should use the tools for recognition of non-formal education. Europass and

especially Youthpass could be used to present the soft skills that young people have acquired

in non-formal learning. Non-formal training could be used as a tool to help to young people

to find a profession. It is very important to explain the significance of non-formal learning to

employers, educators and society. Besides this, it should be contributed to making

importance of employability skills and social inclusion visible at local policy level.

According the Europe 2020 strategy, 75 % of the population aged 20-64 should be

employed. At just under 25% youth unemployment has been declining in Latvia, but is still

high. The government has taken some good steps already to tackle youth and long-term

unemployment, but still needs to be done more, for example, by implementing a youth

guarantee and improving vocational education and non-formal training. Bridging labour

market needs and non-formal learning is another significant factor for development of non-

formal education. For example, Institute for the Future (2011) identified 10 skills needed in

the future labour market:

• Sense making (interpreting the underlying meaning of expressions)

• Social intelligence (connecting with others)

• Novel and adaptive thinking (finding new solutions and responses to

unexpected circumstances)

• Cross-cultural competences (ability to operate in diverse cultural settings)

• Computational thinking (translating data in abstract concepts)

• New-media literacy (critically assessing and developing content)

• Transdisciplinarity (understanding concepts from different disciplines)

• Design mindset (representing and developing tasks and work processes)

• Cognitive load management (discriminating and filtering information)

• Virtual collaboration (working in virtual teams).

Following this, while organizing non-formal education, it should be focused on

development of these future work skills (see the picture below).

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Source: Institute for the Future, 2011

Active volunteering could be used as a mean for non-formal education. It could be

even several EVS accredited institutions in Jelgava. Volunteers could help not only for youth

organizations to be more active in organizing in non-formal education activities, but also

they could contribute to better welfare of the society. Besides this, young people could have

better opportunities to participate in volunteering activities and gain experience and skills

through non-formal education. For successful active volunteering it is crucial to ensure good

image of volunteering within society of Jelgava.

It should be highlighted that about 40% of the population in Latvia is at risk of poverty

or social exclusion – one of the highest rates in the EU. To address this problem the

government should improve the coverage and adequacy of the social welfare system and take

particular measures to address child poverty. Therefore, equal opportunities principle should

be adopted by youth organizations promoting non-formal education. Youth organizations

should focus on the youth with lower possibilities and provide support for young people with

fewer opportunities.

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Jelgava as a city is very attractive and has a big potential. It could be expected that

Jelgava will reach high estimated results until 2020. Jelgava could be shown as a city in the

best practice perspective. The key thing is that all organizations should put all their efforts

and work together. Some efforts should be added and maybe we could entitle Jelgava as

capital of active youth in the future.

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REFERENCES  

1. Council of Europe (2008) Youth policy in Latvia. ISBN 978-92-871-6448-3.

Available at:

http://www.youthpolicy.org/national/Latvia_2008_Youth_Policy_Review.pdf

2. Craig G. (2011) Promoting Social Inclusion of Roma A Study of National Policies.

3. Descriptors defining levels in the European Qualifications Framework (EQF).

Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/ploteus/en/content/descriptors-page

4. Developing the creative and innovative potential of young people through non-formal

learning in ways that are relevant employability: Expert Group Report. Available at:

http://ec.europa.eu/youth/library/reports/creative-potential_en.pdf

5. EU Youth Strategy for 2010-18. Available at:

http://ec.europa.eu/youth/policy/youth_strategy/index_en.htm

6. Europe 2020 strategy

7. Eurostat (2014). European statistics. Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat

8. Excolo Latvia Ltd (2013) COUNTRY SHEET ON YOUTH POLICY IN LATVIA.

Available at: http://pjp-

eu.coe.int/documents/1017981/1668141/Country_sheet_Latvia_2013.pdf/f88bc01c-

a6ad-458a-a19d-64eedd5aa0c1

9. Jelgava in Figures 2013.

10. Jelgava.lv aktuāli. Available at: www.jelgava.lv

11. Pauna D. (2007) Validation of non-formal and informal learning: Statements and

Comments. Available at: http://pdf.mutual-learning-

employment.net/pdf/FR07/Latvia_FR07.pdf

12. Trading Economics (2014) Latvia Youth Unemployment Rate Forecast. Available at:

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/latvia/youth-unemployment-rate/forecast