3 www.digital-youth.eu Introduction The main focus of the Digital Youth project is to prepare youth workers to provide young people with the necessary knowledge, skills, and competences in the digital environment. The project involves five partner countries from four different EU countries: Cyprus, Ireland, Spain, and Greece. These organisations have been called upon to create initiatives and activities to boost the digital competences of young people in Europe. According to studies, Cyprus, Greece, and Spain are below the EU average in terms of Internet user skills, advanced skills, and development. And Ireland, while above average in terms of advanced skills, ranks below average in terms of Internet user skills. The Digital Youth project partners have conducted focus group interviews with youth workers in each partner country to map their needs in relation to digital youth work in terms of their knowledge, skills, and competences. These focus groups aim to: 1. Assess the current state of digital skills knowledge in youth workers. What do they already know? 2. Identify gaps in digital skills and competencies of youth workers. 3. Identify what youth workers need in digital skills. 4. Identify digital devices and apps/software youth workers use daily. This Transnational Report will analyse the data collected in the focus groups in each partner country. This will include coding the content of the discussion, recording any emerging themes and coding their frequency. This analysis will serve as the basis for the creation of the Digital Youth Training Package, an Interactive Handbook for youth workers and online learning modules. Methodology Focus group interviews were conducted in each partner country to map the needs of youth workers regarding digital youth work in terms of their knowledge, skills, and competencies. Though it is not to be used rigidly, like a questionnaire, at the focus group discussion, the facilitator encourages participants to explore topics in-depth, reflect, raise their own issues, etc. Each country partner invited 5-10 youth workers for a group interview and collected qualitative data for the needs assessment. Homogeneity was considered when forming the groups: a representative panel with similar ages and professions and from a different geographical area should be selected. A set of predetermined questions was pilot tested during the first focus group. A series of focus group meetings will ensure that no new major themes surface during the discussions. These sessions lasted 1.5 to 2 hours duration, depending on the number of participants and the depth of discussions.
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