Cowork4YOUTH: Which skills are necessary for the project’s implementation

Every now and then there is a suggested subject in the Youth Employment Magazine that requires some introspection. Even though at a first glance this seems more like a self-advertisement exercise, when you start thinking about what this article would say, you suddenly remember that spending some time reflecting on your own actions can be quite beneficial.

The skills that we use when we are performing a particular work is indeed an excellent example of things that we are not exactly conscious of: Indeed, we spend time in the school, the university and other training activities and develop particular skills; but when you are engaged in a task you are very rarely aware of what are the things you had learnt that you make use of, and how they are combined. Some that seemed of utter importance are sometimes dismissed, while others that were considered trivial, become absolutely crucial. Apparently, this is a significant difference between theoretical training and practice; and as such, very often a source of stress and confusion for the young people entering the labour market.

Trying to understand which are the specific skills that are necessary for our work in the Cowork4YOUTH project and we could not reach the project’s objectives without them, we identified four of them. What is interesting about it, is that while these skills require a certain level of knowledge to be based on, in essence they are not things that you can plainly read about and apply this knowledge. Experience from the field is by far the most important factor.

  • Transnational and trans-organizational cooperation

As a transnational project the necessity of being able to cooperate with people from other countries and organizations is quite obvious. Nevertheless, it is not always a given. The management of such initiatives also requires some special handling. Organizations based on different countries are characterized by different cultures and follow different practices. It takes some agility to leave aside the norms under which your everyday work is designed and adjust to the needs of a project with several people that are also used to different ways of doing things.

  • From the general to the specific

The manifestation of the European youth employment policies on a regional level is a central concept for the research and the analysis that is conducted in Cowork4YOUTH. In our attempt to illuminate the issue of NEETs and suggest solution in specific kind of regions (tourism dependent and in energy transition, in non-metropolitan areas) we need to understand how the EU policy in the field is implemented on the local level and why it does in that particular way. It is perceivable that very often the EU policies provide only general guidelines and cannot anticipate the difficulties posed by the special conditions of each single region. It is part of the researcher’s work then to grasp and illustrate how a single policy is manifested in different cases.

  • Seeing behind the numbers

The analysis performed in the project combines both quantitative and qualitative elements. In fact, in many cases our researchers need to work with large databases. For reaching meaningful conclusions however, especially when examining social issues such as those concerning the NEETs, it is important to not lose focus from the real-life aspect of the analysis. This is an important skill for the emerging profession of data scientists as well.

  • Communicating with multiple audiences

It goes without saying that no matter how good is the produced work, if you do not communicate it correctly, it will be impossible to achieve your goals; and in the case of our project communication present a special challenge: the knowledge produced by the research and the policy analysis needs to reach multiple audiences. First, our paper outputs as well as the Cowork4YOUTH observatory are of course addressed to the research community. Second, the policy recommendations have to reach the regional or national decision makers. Last but not least, it is important for achieving our goals, and increasing the chances of having an impact both in present time as well as in the future, that the project gets as recognition as possible from the public. This special requirement of addressing to different target groups, sometimes leads to the creation of different messages and the use of different channels; in other times it is necessary to create one message that can speak to more than one target groups. Talent and training sometimes can answer such questions; deciding the best option in each case and forming the right message is a skill takes time to master.

Stay connected with us through our social media:

facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn: @Cowork4YOUTH, and visit our website https://www.cowork4youth.org/

 

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