The youth work in Macedonia has different forms and shapes through the years in the past. In the last years, the providers of youth work activities are mostly the associations of citizens operating on local level.
Youth work as profession is still not legally recognized in the country. The process of recognition of youth work on National level is led by the Union of Youth Work. The Union is legally registered professional body working on supporting the development of youth work. The Union is consisted of 15 member organizations-association of citizens and it is formed in June 2013.
The Union of Youth Work is a network of youth organizations and organizations which work with and for youth, whose mission is to regulate and standardize the youth work, to support youth workers and to raise the public awareness of the significance of youth work. The vision of the UYW is for the youth work to be acknowledged as a profession and a built-up system for support of young people and youth workers to exist.
The main goal of the UYW is the affirmation and acknowledgment of youth work, its monitoring, evaluation, advancement and continuous development for the sake of securing a quality and effective support of a young person.
The tasks of the Union of Youth Work are:
- Connecting, or easing and/or leading the process of connecting, common aid and support, exchange of experience and collaboration between youth workers, youth organizations and other organizations which offer youth work
- Affirmation and leading of processes and procedures for recognition and acknowledgement of the values of youth work (self-acclaim, community, formal and political acclaim)
- Setting standards and criteria for quality, monitoring and control of the quality of youth work and its continuous advancement
- Leading the national processes of education of youth workers through standardized and accredited programs, individually and in collaboration with the educational institutions
- Creation of a database of youth workers
- Improvement of the approach and protection of the rights of youth workers
Information about their work can be found here.