Representatives of youth organizations and student unions from Cluj-Napoca joined the Skill IT for Youth multiplier event organized in Romania by Fundatia Danis, in the mid-October 2019. The organizations were challenged to come up with new ideas for digitizing the youth sector and enhancing its role in the delivery of the future and digital skills for young people.

The main objectives of the event were:

• to introduce to the youth organizations the Skill IT for Youth project, aims, activities, partners, funders and the main results obtained so far;
• to present and debate the Skill IT for Youth Research results on young people, youth workers and youth organizations’ needs in regards to digital skills and digital work;
• to explore ways of using the Skill IT for Youth Competence Framework for Digital Youth Work Practice, Skill IT for Youth Training Toolkit for Digital Youth Work and the Skill IT for Youth Organization Guide for Senior Managers & Leaders to Embed Digital Technology into Their Organisations;
• to provide a workshop on using the Skill IT for Youth Organization Guide and the online tools developed, in order to learn and reflect on how the youth organizations could foster a digital environment which supports young people;
• to promote the Skill IT for Youth online platform that provides free access to all the resources developed within the project;
• to generate new ideas for a public policy supporting the digitization of the youth sector and the enhancement of its role in the delivery of the future and digital skills for young people.

The 13 participants – leaders and senior managers in the youth organizations and student unions – got familiar with the resources developed within the project, showing a great interest for the Skill IT for Youth Training Toolkit, but also for the assessment tools developed for youth workers and youth organizations, in order to evaluate and reflect on the competencies of their youth workers to deliver more digital work and their organizations’ digital readiness. The participants received all the information about the content of these resources, and discussed on how these resources could be further used by their organizations or other NGOs.

In the last part of the event, Fundatia Danis shared with the youth organizations leaders the main ideas resulting from the Skill IT for Youth Research, which could help in the development of a public policy for digitizing the youth sector and enhancing its role in the delivery of the future and digital skills for young people. Then, the participants were challenged, in a world café-type debate, to generate new ideas on what youth organizations, local authorities, academia, the private sector, etc. can do to enhance youth sector’s role in supporting young people to develop their digital skills and other skills, such as flexibility and adaptability, learning, communication, teamwork, creativity, productivity skills, etc. All the ideas were noted down in order to include them in the policy brief that will be drafted and proposed by Fundatia Danis by the end of the project.

Finally, following a request made by the youth organizations before the event, Fundatia Danis also delivered a short presentation of the Erasmus+ programme and the opportunities it offers to youth organizations.