The team of SFERA International participated in a training for youth workers as part of the project GEN Z Digital Workforce from June 24–July 2, 2022, in Funchal, Madeira.

The aim of this training course was to:

• Equip youth workers with competencies and methods for their professional development, including for digital youth work, needed for transferring the common fundamental values of our society, particularly to the hard-to-reach young people and those from challenging backgrounds;
• Obtain new competencies in career guidance for young people in the online environment;
• Build a strategic approach on how to reach marginalized young people from their communities online;
• Increase the capacity of NGOs to work for the benefit of young people with fewer opportunities to use ICT competencies;
• Create a better, more modern environment within the participating organizations and prepare to meet the current societal challenges.

The Gen Z Digital Workforce is a 2-year initiative between 5 organizations (You(th) Develop Denmark (coordinator), Uniamoci Onlus (Italy), SFERA International (North Macedonia), Innovaform (Hungary), and My Madeira Island (Portugal)).

The aim of this project is to contribute to the reduction of unemployment in the EU by focusing on supporting people with fewer opportunities. The priorities that this project covers aim to pilot education and training systems that promote employability, upskilling, and innovation, as well as increase social mobility and equality towards special groups. This project aims to equip young people with the competencies needed for receiving and retaining a job online and developing hard and soft skills for self-organized work, including resilience.

The project is financed by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union.