6 Country Reports on Youth Work - Jugendpolitik in Europa

Comments:
Differences between national and local level
In Spain, much like in Greece or the Netherlands, the local survey provided extensive
information about youth work that was not available at national level. First of all it can be
stated that although youth work structures are not well established, there is nevertheless a
wide range of youth work activities. While at national level it was only possible to trace
training activities for labour market insertion and youth information activities, at local level it
becomes clear that the main activities provided at this level are extracurricular youth
education, leisure time and recreational activities, and that labour market-oriented activities
are not dominating.
Differences at local level
The activities provided in rural areas are scarcer that in urban areas, but nevertheless
cultural and recreational activities, youth associations, consultancies for employment issues
and sports are on offer. People working in the youth work areas are generally professionals
with higher education degrees. In associations there are higher numbers of volunteers than
employed youth workers. The majority of employees and volunteers are women, so that we
can say that youth work in Spain is a feminised profession. The main target group of youth
work in rural areas is the 13- to 19-year-olds, whereas in urban areas youth work targets
young people between 15 and 19 years of age.
10.11Comparative Overview of local findings
10.11.1 Availability of data
The central result of the present study has been to show that it is indeed possible to describe
the structures of youth work at local level. The indicators we had set proved to be suitable in
all countries except Ireland and Italy, and they indeed produced relevant results. We were
unable to obtain quantitative data in either Ireland or Italy, primarily because of the restricted
timeframe. In these two countries it was particularly difficult to identify the parties and
institutions involved in youth work at local level. The people we manage to contact had no
existing information at their disposal – they would therefore have had to be asked and
encouraged to collect data internally. In Spain we had to describe in detail the fields of
activity of youth work to the institutions we surveyed. These institutions were not familiar with
the terms used, even though the activities as such may indeed have been offered.
Most of the problems we encountered with regard to data collection came up when data had
to be obtained from non-public associations. As a result of these groups’ volunteer-based
structures, they had to be approached several times before the necessary data was
provided. For Austria this is the reason for the low rate of return – 36% – while for Romania
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