Digital Skills for You(th)

The internet and social media play a continuously growing role in the lives of young people: they are using it extensively and are prone to immediately take up new digital media appliances and devices.

However, young people from socially or educationally disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to receive the guidance necessary to fully develop their digital media skills through their families or school education. Here, professionals from the area of child and youth welfare can play a role in improving the digital literacy of this target group - they show a high awareness for the need to deal with the topic and a high motivation to get themselves ready to guide their young target group through the digital world.

Since digital literacy is generally not yet included in the curricula of social work education so far and nearly no institutionalised training or systematic further education is offered during the working life of professionals working with young people, the project "Digital Skills for You(th)" aims at developing and piloting a blended learning offer for these professionals focusing on a strength-oriented approach for their young target group concerning digital opportunities and challenges regarding their personal and professional development and active participation in society. Furthermore the project is committed to establish a qualification offer which is transferable to and able to be embedded in institutionalised national structures to ensure a continuous learning. Keeping up with the fast development and innovation of the internet and its appliances especially in the area of social media is one of the most challenging tasks in education in the years to come.