ENHANCING THE AWARENESS OF EDUCATION PROFESSIONALS ABOUT YOUTH WORK THROUGH TRAINING

Abstract

This article explores the implementation, features, and outcomes of a training program designed for education professionals on the fundamentals of youth work. The training aimed to enhance participants’ awareness of youth work and explore potential avenues for its development and collaboration with organizations implementing youth work in their communities.
The purpose of the article is to examine the potential of the training program to raise the awareness of education professionals about youth work and apply its approaches in their professional activities. The article sets out the following objectives: to provide a methodological description of the training program and experimentally verify its implementation’s specifics and effectiveness.
The study utilized the following methods: theoretical analysis and synthesis to elaborate on the training program and reveal and compare its implementation’s outcomes; empirical pedagogical experiment (through conducting the training and a card game); and surveys.
The research is based on conducting two training sessions for 30 specialists in the Kyiv region’s education field. According to the results of the training implementation, an increase in the participants’ awareness of the training regarding the main concepts and approaches of youth work is recorded. It has been proven that the training is an effective tool for familiarizing with the basics of youth work, creating awareness about how and why it is necessary to take into account its main features in working with young people, which can give results even outside the field of youth work, which are tools for the development of youth work in the community and with whom it is possible to cooperate for the development of youth participation.
This demonstrates the effectiveness of the training as a tool for familiarizing participants with the basics of youth work, its tools, and the mechanisms for enhancing youth participation in the community through youth work. The research findings can be utilized in the further theoretical development and analysis of programs aimed at introducing the basics of youth work, in the preparation of professionals involved in youth work, and in the practical implementation of such programs.