Meeting in Helsinki at the invitation of the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, the Council of Europe ad hoc high level task force on youth work discussed in detail a new strategy for the knowledge-based development of European youth work. The aim of the meeting was to define concrete recommendations with ambitious but realistic objectives for the Council of Europe youth sector and potentially for other stakeholders.

The task force will report its progress to the next meeting of the Joint Council on Youth (CMJ) (19 and 20 March 2019; Budapest) where it will receive guidelines for the furtherance of its work in time for its fourth meeting later this year.

The task force also heard a presentation of the preparations for the 3rd European Youth Work Convention which will be held in Germany in 2020 during the German chairmanship of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers and presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Set up in the framework of Recommendation CM/Rec(2017)4 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on youth work, the task force is charged with elaborating a mid-term strategy for the knowledge-based development of European youth work which will, amongst other aims, improve co-ordination of and access to youth work knowledge and resources, strengthen the capacity of youth work to respond to the changes and trends in our society and the emerging challenges faced by young people, as well as stimulate co-operation within the youth sector and among sectors and fields of expertise wherever youth work takes place in order to reinforce ties, in particular between formal education and youth work and between public authorities, the private sector and civil society.