🇳🇱 Erasmus+ Training Course in the Netherlands 🤖 AI Literacy and Inclusive Youth Participation for Youth Workers 🧭

Young people's lives now unfold in AI-shaped online spaces — in the content they see, the feeds that rank it, and images and voices that can be convincingly faked — and youth workers are expected to support them there. Many simply don't yet have the practical skills or clear guidance to do it. "AI Literacy for Inclusive Youth Participation" is a six-day Erasmus+ training course, held at Olde Vechte in Ommen, Netherlands, that closes part of that gap: not by turning youth workers into technologists, but by building small, repeatable practices they can run again at home. At Youth Works Hub we track funded training for youth workers across Europe, and this is a sharp, hands-on one — so here is the full picture of what the week involves.

The Context: Youth Work in an AI-Shaped World

🌐 Young people's participation and everyday communication increasingly happen online, and AI is now part of that environment. Youth workers are expected to support young people in those spaces, but many lack the practical skills or clear guidance — and the gap between what young people meet online and what youth work is equipped to respond to keeps widening as the tools change.

🤝 No organisation works this out alone. The tools move too fast, and the same questions land in youth centres across many countries at once. What a week together buys you is other people's tested answers, in a room where getting it wrong costs nothing.

What This Course Responds To

The ten partner organisations recognised eight shared patterns across very different youth-work settings:

🎭 Manipulated content is everywhere — deepfakes and AI-made posts spread fast and can create confusion or tension in a youth group.

📊 Feeds shape what young people believe — ranking and recommendation influence opinion and participation.

⚠️ AI can reinforce stereotypes — biased outputs harm and exclude, and you need to spot and handle it safely.

🔒 Privacy and consent are unclear — many tools collect data while youth work handles personal stories and images.

🛡️ Online harm spills into youth work — harassment, hate and harmful content appear during and after activities.

⚖️ Skills are uneven inside teams — a few people know the tools; others avoid them.

♿ Digital participation can exclude — access, language, disability and confidence are real barriers.

📄 Ready-to-use material is missing — most resources are written for schools or tech audiences, not non-formal settings.

The Aim and Objectives

🎯 The overall aim is to strengthen the quality of digital youth work by equipping youth workers to support young people's participation in AI-shaped online environments in a safe, ethical and inclusive way. Its five objectives are:

1️⃣ Practical competences — build youth workers' skills in digital youth work and AI literacy (deepfakes, misinformation, online influence, responsible tool use) so they can address these topics confidently.

2️⃣ Facilitation — improve skills to run participatory, non-formal sessions that strengthen youth voice online and offline (co-creation, dialogue, critical thinking).

3️⃣ Organisational practice — introduce simple, usable routines for privacy and consent, safeguarding in digital and hybrid settings, and inclusion by design, including low-tech alternatives.

4️⃣ Reusable formats — produce and test ready-to-run session formats and checklists that colleagues can replicate and adapt.

5️⃣ Transfer — ensure transfer to daily work through one follow-up pilot activity in each organisation, supported by peer exchange after the course.

How the Week Works: Method

Six working days of non-formal education, with every block built so you can run it again yourself:

☕ World café & reality mapping — what AI and digital participation actually look like across different youth-work settings.

🧪 Tool labs — rotating stations on participation and AI chat tools, each with a risk-and-safeguards checklist you fill in as you go.

🎬 Scenario simulation — role play with forum-theatre pauses on misinformation and conflict, followed by a structured debrief.

🗂️ Practice case labs — real dilemmas participants bring, worked through in rotating facilitator, observer and youth-voice roles.

🚀 Co-creation sprints — design-thinking sprints that turn it all into a session you could run next month, peer-reviewed against a quality rubric.

🎤 Micro-facilitation — you facilitate your session twice: once for feedback, then again, improved.

🌻 Also drawn to the Netherlands for something greener and hands-on? Take a look at this: ESC Volunteering: Live the Ecovillage Life at Ecodorp Bergen in 🇳🇱 the Netherlands → https://youthworkshub.org/19329

What You'll Leave With

📦 A ready-to-run session format on AI literacy and youth participation, tested and peer-reviewed.

✅ Practical checklists for ethical tool choice, privacy and consent, safeguarding and inclusion by design.

🔁 A transfer plan for one follow-up pilot in your organisation, with a buddy group behind it.

📗 A Youthpass certificate, drafted during the course from your own evidence.

Who's in the Room

👥 Youth workers with direct contact with young people in non-formal settings where digital participation and AI-shaped content are increasingly present — youth centres, outreach and community work, and online or hybrid youth activities — plus facilitators, mentors, project coordinators, trainers and digital youth work practitioners.

🙌 If you work inside a youth organisation without daily contact with young people (coordinating, designing programmes, communications, management), you are welcome too — much of what the week produces is meant to be handed to colleagues. No technical background is needed; curiosity about the questions is what matters.

🧭 Want to understand how this type of Erasmus+ activity works? This guide explains it: What Is Mobility of Youth Workers? The Erasmus+ Guide → https://youthworkshub.org/mobility-of-youth-workers

What They Ask of You

📌 Bring one real dilemma from your own practice — you'll work on it in the case labs.

📌 Be ready to facilitate in front of your peers, twice.

📌 Commit to one follow-up pilot activity in your organisation after the course.

📌 Publish one recap post within 14 days of the course ending.

📌 Bring your own laptop or tablet for the tool labs.

Where You'll Stay

🏡 The venue is Olde Vechte in Ommen, a self-managed house in the Foundation's own forest, with seventeen bedrooms, a dining room, a living room onto two terraces, and a 150 m² training barn with projector, speakers and flipcharts.

🛏️ Accommodation is in shared triple rooms, allocated by the organisers before arrival. Bedsheets are provided, but towels and toiletries are not — bring both. There are no lockers, so keep passports, cards and devices with you. As a self-managed house, the group keeps the common spaces tidy through a light daily rotation.

🍽️ Meals are covered from dinner on 8 October (20:00) to breakfast on 15 October, with dietary requirements collected in the registration form.

Costs, Travel and Insurance

💶 The course is funded by Erasmus+, and there is no participation fee. Accommodation and all meals are covered for selected participants.

✈️ Travel is reimbursed up to €309 for all participants (except those based in the Netherlands), within the Erasmus+ limits for your route. Every travel purchase must be approved before you book; use the cheapest reasonable option; book directly on the operator's own site; keep every ticket and boarding pass. Reimbursement is made after the course, can take up to two months, and depends on full participation and your dissemination post.

🩺 Health insurance valid in the Netherlands is mandatory for your whole stay. If you live in the EU, bring your European Health Insurance Card; if you are resident outside the EU, private insurance covering health, accidents, emergencies, repatriation and civil liability is mandatory (an EHIC is not accepted). Insurance itself is not reimbursable.

Certificate

📜 Participants receive a Youthpass certificate, drafted during the course from your own evidence, recognising the competences you develop.

🧭 Heading to Italy instead, or as well? This one is worth a look: Erasmus+ Youth Exchange: Crossroads – Connecting Stories, Building Belonging in 🇮🇹 Italy → https://youthworkshub.org/21934

Frequently Asked Questions

❓ When and where is it? 8–15 October 2026 (six working days including travel days), at Olde Vechte in Ommen, Netherlands.

❓ Is there a fee? No participation fee. Accommodation and meals are covered; travel is reimbursed up to €309 (except for participants based in the Netherlands).

❓ Do I need a tech background? No — curiosity about the questions is what matters. Bring your own laptop or tablet for the tool labs.

❓ What will I actually produce? A tested, peer-reviewed session format, practical checklists, a transfer plan for a follow-up pilot, and a Youthpass certificate.

❓ What's expected after the course? One follow-up pilot activity in your organisation and one recap post within 14 days.

❓ Who delivers it? It is hosted and coordinated by Stichting Coconutwork in the Netherlands, within a consortium of ten partner organisations across ten countries, each nominating three participants.

Deadline

⏳ 7 September 2026 (24:00 UTC), with selection on 10 September 2026.

Because places are allocated across the partner consortium, the surest route is to move early through your country's partner organisation — Youth Works Hub gathers funded youth-worker training like this so you can act before the deadline.

How to Apply

📩 Participation runs through the consortium's partner organisations, with three places per partner country. If you are interested, apply through your country's partner organisation, or contact the coordinating foundation to ask about your route in. Selection follows shortly after the deadline, and selected participants complete a registration form.