Empowering Youth Work towards the European Green

Background The European Green Deal, which is based on circularity and sustainability principles, requires a paradigm shift in both training curricula and practices to equip youth and university students with green entrepreneurship skills. To adapt young people to the innovations brought by the Green Deal, their green skills should increase as well as they should gain the competence to discover green entrepreneurship opportunities. Europe continues on its way in line with the 2050 targets by reflecting the Green Deal step by step and sector by sector in all areas of life and economy. The Green Deal will redesign the existing sectors during the transition period as well as it will affect people's living habits rapidly; thus, green jobs and green skills will come to the fore. It is very important for university students who are future entrepreneurs and employees to constantly transfer information and to generate ideas, both for their careers and for faster implementation of the Green Deal. Emphasis on the Green Deal in youth work involving university students is critical because all sectors need to make radical changes by making significant investments to keep up with this new order. Preparations for the EU's Border Carbon Regulation, which is the "determination of the import price by considering the carbon footprint of the goods" in sectors from the automotive to the ready-made clothing, from the chemistry to the iron and steel sector, have also started. According to the results of the study carried out by our Engineering Faculty in 2021 within the framework of the reports of the Ministry of Industry and the Turkish Steel Producers Association; the practice in the EU, which is Turkey's largest export market with a share of more than 50 per cent, will also significantly affect Turkey's exports. If the sectors do not regulate the carbon emissions of the products and services subject to export under the Green Deal regulations which foresees a 3-year grace period, they will face a tax burden between 30 and 50 Euros per ton. Turkey exported 155 million 331 thousand tons of goods with a value of 169 billion dollars last year. According to the tax burden regulation of 30-50 Euros per ton, with a rough calculation, if Turkish exporters do not make their investments in the regulation, they will be exposed to an annual tax burden of between 2.3 billion dollars and 3.9 billion dollars. Accordingly, if we consider young people as future business leaders, they urgently need to be prepared for the European Green Deal. Universities create an environment where young people can shape their careers and interact with each other at a high level. Student clubs, societies and informal youth groups within the universities provide tremendous environments for the promotion of the European Green Deal. However, youth work in universities has not developed much in this direction. Youth work is usually managed by youth leaders (selected within students) or other staff and lecturers who engage in youth works despite not having such a job description. Apart from the backward curriculum in schools, young people in particular university students should be supported by non-formal and informal activities to develop green skills and entrepreneurial mindset, to make their voices heard and to encourage active citizenship. Objectives The European Green Deal is the EU’s roadmap towards a sustainable future, with the ultimate goal of achieving a climate-neutral continent by 2050. It aims to boost the efficient use of resources by moving to a clean, circular economy and stop climate change, revert biodiversity loss and cut pollution. The European Green Deal covers all sectors of the economy. European Union continues to keep the Green Deal at the heart of EU policy-making for the next years/decade. The EU commitment to the creation of a circular economy and resocialization of production has the potential to create a million new green jobs. While youth unemployment remains high, this is a welcome and important step. However, youth are not ready to adapt themselves to new green jobs. Preparing young people for the Green Deal is not only possible with green innovation of education curricula. It is The content of this page is published for information purposes only. The project was funded by the European Union. However, the communication about the project that is published through this page expresses the views of the project beneficiaries only and it does not represent the views of the European Union or the European Commission. It shall not be deemed to constitute legal or official notice on behalf of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the European Commission can be held responsible for this content nor the use thereof made by any third parties. Page 2 of 5 2021-2-TR01-KA220-YOU-000051110 Generated on: Jan 9, 2026 necessary to increase the quality of youth work. The proposed project prioritizes to convey the principles of the European Green Deal and its changes to young people in a better-quality way through youth work. Moreover, increasing the skills of youth workers and other staff engaged in youth work towards the Green Deal is one of the issues that the project will address. The main purpose of the proposed project; To increase the quality of youth work in the preparation of university students / young people towards the European Green Deal. Specific Objectives of the project are: - To build the capacity of youth workers to better integrate the Green Deal topics in their practice and to transfer them into informal and non-formal training - To empower youth with new competencies, and enhance their employability in green/circular economy - To raise awareness on environmental challenges and climate change as well as to develop knowledge and critical understanding of the European Green Deal concepts and action The project will also touch various global goals such as Erasmus+ Priorities, UNDP Sustainable Development Goals, 2019-2027 EU Youth Strategies, Paris Climate Agreement, EU Commission primary goals, and guides young people within the scope of the Green Deal. Activities Various project activities will be carried out in order to achieve the objectives of the project and to deliver the planned results. The main activities and how they lead to the achievement are detailed below. 1. Production of the Tangible Results The most important activity in the project is to produce 3 tangible results. The first of these; The production of “The Informal Training Set towards the European Green Deal Concept” is the most important activity in achieving the project goal related to youth workers. Lecturers, lead students or relevant staff engaged in youth work in universities, although there is no youth work in their job description, will increase their qualifications as youth workers. In addition, universities and other relevant target groups will have innovative training materials for their in-service training for youth workers. This result will increase the competencies of youth workers within the framework of the ETS II Competence Model and the Green Deal. The second tangible result, “The Toolkit for the Green Skills”, will enable university students/young people in general to prepare for the European Green Deal transition period and acquire future skills such as green entrepreneurship, active citizenship and green skills. It will enrich the resources of youth workers. The toolkit will play the most important role in achieving the project's goals on youth. The Training Set and The Toolkit will increase the quality, innovation and recognition of youth work and ensure that the related project goal is achieved. The third tangible result, GreenBrained, will be a platform to raise awareness of the wider community about the transition to the Green Deal, a platform where youth workers and youth can benefit, have their voices heard and encourage their active citizenship duties. It will be an innovative platform with the theme of the Green Deal and will be effective for the engagement of citizens in the process. Thanks to these features, it will be a powerful platform in achieving the goals of the project. 2. The Green Deal Mobility 25 university students with fewer opportunities will participate in the LTT Activity. In this activity, The Training Set and The Toolkit will be tested and data will be collected for necessary optimizations. Thus, LTT Activity will make a great contribution to the production of high-quality tangible results. In addition, it will be ensured that the tangible results involve target groups with fewer opportunities and leave no one behind. With the LTT Activity, it is expected that students with limited opportunities will develop many soft skills such as entrepreneurship, active citizenship, green skills. 3. Green Ideas Competiton The content of this page is published for information purposes only. The project was funded by the European Union. However, the communication about the project that is published through this page expresses the views of the project beneficiaries only and it does not represent the views of the European Union or the European Commission. It shall not be deemed to constitute legal or official notice on behalf of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the European Commission can be held responsible for this content nor the use thereof made by any third parties. Page 3 of 5 2021-2-TR01-KA220-YOU-000051110 Generated on: Jan 9, 2026 A competition will be held on students' green entrepreneurship business ideas related to the Green Deal. In this competition, good ideas will be selected and an exhibition will be held without sorting. Green Ideas will enable students to be engaged in the project, increase their motivation about green thoughts and expand their horizons by discovering different ideas. 4. Online Meeting & Transnational Project Meetings These meetings will ensure good synergy between