POLICY & PRACTICE: Briefing - Europe's funding for youth set forchange

Leonardo? Socrates? If I'd wanted to know about Brazilian football, I'd have subscribed to Shoot! Don't be daft. These names refer to a couple of the EU's programmes for education, training and young people. They, along with Tempus and the more prosaically named Youth, are due to finish at the end of 2006. The European Commission is now consulting on the next generation of schemes.

So what do these programmes do? Socrates supports international mobility in schools and universities, Tempus has done a similar job for higher education with countries outside the EU and Leonardo gives a European dimension to vocational training.

And Youth supports youth work! That's the idea. Most people will know it through the support it gives to youth group exchanges and to young people seeking voluntary work in Europe. It also supports disadvantaged young people in setting up in business. The full explanation is that it is based on "non-formal education, the concept of lifelong learning and the development of skills and competencies that promote active citizenship, the spirit of initiative and the fight against racism and xenophobia".

So is there anything to worry about in this consultation? One of the points being consulted on is whether all the programmes should be amalgamated.

Connect Youth, the national agency within the British Council that operates the Youth programme in the UK, is among those who think this would be a rather bad idea. The youth work sector across Europe is tiny compared to the more powerful universities, FE sector and schools.

The fear is that, in any competition for resources, the youth sector is likely to lose out without the protection of a single, clearly defined programme.

So it's just about money? Not at all. The other programmes all have more or less the aim of hard qualifications. The youth sector does not - it has a different set of values, looks at process as much as outcome and deals with hard issues of conflict, racism, alienation and exclusion.

There has to be a concern that, under a single programme largely serving the more high-achieving, mainly compliant young people, administrators may not understand the need of our sector and may end up 'censoring' it.

There may also be a tendency to roll the outcome approach of other programmes into Youth. Some might see in this a reflection of the debates currently going on in domestic youth policy.

Can we contribute to the consultation? Yes - anyone with an interest is invited to contribute. If you have ever had an idea about how to improve the operation of a European programme, this could be your chance to speak up.

You can find the consultation document at http://europa.eu.int/comm/ education/newprogsconsult.

FACT BOX

- The European Commission is consulting on the future of its programmes for education, training and youth

- The Youth programme fosters youth exchanges, volunteering and other initiatives. It was established for 2000-06 with a budget of 520 million euros (340m)

- Youth attracts some 10,000 projects involving around 130,000 young people every year

- Connect Youth strongly believes in the value of a separate Youth programme with ring-fenced funding that can reflect work values and priorities.