Estonia: past successes, present challenges, and an outlook for the future of youth work

Written by Nik Paddison 

Can you tell us about yourself? Who are you, and what do you do? 

Hi, my name is Martti Martinson, and I am a youth worker by trade. I am privileged to be having the opportunity to plan and influence some of the key policy and legislative reforms in the youth work and hobby education space in Estonia through my work as an advisor for the Youth and Talent Policy Department of the Ministry of Education and Research.

Can you tell us about the situation of youth work in Estonia? Where has it come from, and where is it now?

We have a lot of things to be proud of. When we talk to our international colleagues and tell them about youth work in Estonia, it is quite often the case that they are amazed by what they hear and sometimes might even see the situation in Estonia as their dream. But when you attend the discussions that we have amongst ourselves within the sector, you might get quite a different impression. The reality is that the sector is acutely aware of what is still missing and how much more work needs to be done to get closer to the situation where we would like to be, particularly when it comes to the social and political recognition of the value of youth work and the role of youth workers.

But we absolutely need to regularly remind ourselves about the many major milestones that have already been achieved (and there are plenty) - this is something we could be better at, as our current minister also often likes to remind us. One of the cornerstones of the youth sector in Estonia is that, for a long time, we have had very solid legal and policy frameworks for youth work on a national level. The first Youth Work Act was adopted already in 1999, and we have had national-level youth work strategies since the mid-2000s.

Another cornerstone is the 32 years of professional training and education of youth workers, which we are very proud of. For most of that time, it has been offered at an undergraduate degree level and, since 2015, also at a master’s level. We also have a system of occupational standards for youth work. One way of obtaining an occupation certificate in youth work is to graduate from a youth work course. But there is an alternative pathway for those without a youth work degree, where they can get their professional competencies assessed against the standards and obtain a youth worker occupational certificate that way.

For the first time, we have a standalone youth policy section in the current coalition agreement, which was signed between the two parties that form the current national government. There is a political agreement that a new law will be drafted replacing the existing Youth Work Act and Hobby Schools Act and, among other things, will legislate mandatory qualification requirements for youth workers. Preparations for the implementation of the qualification reform have been underway for a while now, and when implemented, it will be a major milestone in Estonia’s youth work story.

One of the things that we have been fortunate with is that even with governments changing over the years, the continuity of support for youth work has been maintained, despite some changes to funding. One of the results of this is that in 2021 the government adopted a Youth Sector Development Plan 2021-2035, which is the longest period upon which the goals and strategic directions for the youth sector have been agreed in Estonia.

This level of continuity has meant that we have been able to focus much more on things such as developing quality standards and quality management, and assessment frameworks for youth work. We have been taking steps towards achieving a greater level of recognition of non-formal learning (in youth work or hobby education) within formal education. The Estonian parliament recently passed legislative amendments to push towards greater recognition of the competences acquired through non-formal learning by the school system.

Can you tell us about some of the challenges you are facing? 

Russia’s war against Ukraine has shifted the priorities a lot, including political and policy agendas. At the same time, the war has also affected the economy and Estonia’s fiscal position, and as a result, we are seeing a significant redistribution of public funds, with a much stronger focus on boosting Estonia’s defence capabilities and helping Ukraine. This is posing challenges also for the youth sector, as the competition for public funds is now bigger than ever before. We are competing for funds with formal education, healthcare, social well-being, law enforcement, arts, sports, etc. The value and importance of these fields are more understandable to an average citizen or a politician, which means that the youth work sector needs to work extra hard to avoid major funding cuts, let alone to make the case for increased funding.

At the same time, the current security situation has increased the general feeling of uncertainty, and this has a big impact also on young people. Many are concerned about their future; some are delaying life decisions such as starting a family, or are thinking about moving abroad. When we look at the statistics, we have not seen a massive exodus so far. In fact, in the past couple of years, we have seen a big increase in Estonia’s youth population due to the number of Ukrainian refugees who have come to Estonia. This is, of course, an anomaly and temporary, as most of them will want to return home when it is safe to do so. We do know that in the medium and long term, the youth population as well as the overall population of Estonia will continue to decline.

The cost-of-living crisis and the increased competition for funding mean that resources have become scarcer. There is an increasing discrepancy between the working conditions and salaries of youth workers in comparison to others in similar professions. The salaries and the working conditions for youth workers are way below where they should be, despite the existence of youth work education and an occupational certification system.

Another issue we are facing – which is not unique to Estonia – is that we are seeing more polarisation between young people, both in the political sense and in terms of values and attitudes more broadly. The widening gap between young boys and young girls is particularly concerning.

How is Estonian youth work connecting with the European Youth Work Agenda? 

We have found ourselves to be very much connected to the Agenda. Of course, when you look at the priority areas, there are some that we connect more to, and there are others that we connect less to. This is not because the others are not important for us, but rather because in some areas we achieved major milestones in Estonia already some time ago, and they are therefore not as high on the agenda anymore.

“Quality development”, one of the priority areas, is something that is still very high on the agenda for us. We are constantly working on developing quality standards for different youth services.

“Promotion and Recognition” is another area that we deal with a lot. For example, the salary situation, fighting for funding, and receiving political attention. We recently commissioned a study to better understand the working conditions of youth workers. We knew anecdotally that things were not good, but with the numbers in front of us, it was still quite shocking. Youth worker salaries are much lower compared to teachers, for example. We have youth workers who are earning only a little bit more than the minimum wage, even when they are university degree qualified. We compare ourselves to teachers a lot because it's quite close to youth work and comes under the same policy arena and within the Ministry of Education.

Social recognition is also a problem; youth work is still not highly valued by society at large in Estonia.

Can you share some of the highlights about the national process in Estonia?

We have used the Agenda framework as an impetus to establish the European Youth Work Agenda national working group, which has been in operation for 2 years. We call it a working group, but it has evolved into more of a think tank.

In it, we have all the main actors involved, including umbrella organisations, the universities, the Ministry, and the National Agency. We meet around four times a year. We bring to the think tank meetings things that are very much still in a draft or idea stage, sometimes also quite raw. The think tank gives us their honest feedback and we discuss everything in a very informal and casual atmosphere.

There are some things that we put on the agenda from the Ministry’s or National Agency’s side (as we are the conveners), for example, policy development ideas, and there are things that come up, like budget cuts and the political situation. At the most recent meeting, for example, we discussed the European Youth Work Convention before it happened. This became the preparation for the Estonian delegation, informing them what they should do there and what kind of information they needed to be bringing back.

A recent international civic and citizenship education study showed some alarming trends concerning Estonian young people. We used the think tank to discuss the study with the authors, exploring the reasons behind the results that showed a big widening gap between Estonian boys and girls. This gap includes things like their values, views of democracy, and what they think is important in society in terms of civic education and civil rights.

Where would you like to see youth work in Estonia in five years’ time? 

From a youth work sector point of view, I would like to see that we are on a clear path towards youth workers being more equal to teachers. This is in terms of how they are viewed by society, their working conditions, their salaries, and the qualifications we expect them to have to work with young people.

In terms of young people and the responsibility we as the youth work sector have to them, I hope we will see a reduction in the number of young people in Estonia not in employment, education or training. That we will have a better response to the trend of mental health challenges young people are facing. I want us to have in place a solid and effective response to this polarisation and the rejection of democratic values and civil rights, especially among boys and young men. And I hope we will have some solutions to prevent a significant number of young people from wanting to leave Estonia.

Estonia has a strong youth work model. We need to be learning as we work with these issues, we need to be learning about how other countries are dealing with these issues, and we need to be sharing the practices we develop for tackling these issues.

Martii Martinson

Martti Martinson works for the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research. He shares some of the successes, future directions, and difficulties that the youth work sector in Estonia is facing.