EU youth programmes strengthen young people's skills as active citizens and critical thinkers
The European RAY (Research-based Analysis of European Youth Programmes) Network provides data on the impact of the EU youth programmes Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps on young people's lives. The Network's surveys provide a wealth of evidence that the programmes strengthen young people's skills as citizens, critical thinkers and lifelong learners. The surveys also highlight areas for improvement, which helps National Agencies to fine-tune the implementation of programmes, SALTO Resource Centres to focus their work in supporting programmes and the European Commission to refine and develop the framework structures of the programmes.
The Network’s surveys help determine whether the EU programmes are meeting their objectives. The results confirm the importance of the programmes and also help to justify the importance of international cooperation at the national level.
– Whenever the EU or society funds something, it is important to assess the impact of the funding. It is also important to hear the experiences and improvement suggestions of the target group, in this case young people, say researchers Mirja Määttä and Kari Saari from Youth Research and Development Unit Juvenia.
Määttä and Saari, researchers at Juvenia, which analyses the Network’s research data on Finland, mention that one of the key topical issues in youth research is young people and youth in an era of multiple crises: confidence in the future is being undermined by the impacts of climate change, natural loss, wars, pandemics, unemployment and economic uncertainty on young people's lives.
– At their best, various internationalisation opportunities can be seen as things that bring young people together, reducing inequality and increasing confidence in the future, say Määttä and Saari.
Long-lasting and inclusive impacts
A 2024 monitoring survey published by the RAY Network looked at the personal and professional development of participants in the EU’s youth programmes over eight years. The survey shed light on the varied and long-term effects of participation in the Erasmus+ Youth in Action programme on young people's lives.
– The impact of participation can manifest itself in different ways: in hindsight, it may have been an event that determined your path in life, such as a career, or a nice social and communal project that helped you learn new attitudes, knowledge and skills, say Määttä and Saari. Participation in the projects has often increased young people’s interest in international cooperation as well as given them the courage and self-confidence to work with different people.
Among the core methods of the RAY Network are online surveys carried out every two years, which all young people and project team members involved in Erasmus+ Youth and European Solidarity Corps projects are invited to respond to.
– Over the past 15+ years, more than 125 000 project participants and close to 30 000 project team members have participated in our surveys and given voice to their experience, says Transnational Research Coordinator Andreas Karsten from Youth Policy Labs, the international research unit of the RAY Network.
A new monitoring survey will be sent to participants in the Erasmus+ Youth and European Solidarity Corps projects during the autumn. To ensure the reliability of the results, the RAY Network hopes that as many people as possible would take the time to respond to the survey. Previous monitoring surveys have examined, among other things, the extent to which projects contribute to the priorities of Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps: inclusion and diversity; digitalisation; environmental responsibility; and participation in democratic life, common values and civic engagement. In the previous monitoring survey, published in 2024, all respondent groups considered their projects to have been highly inclusive and participatory. Environmental responsibility was considered to have been realised well and digitalisation was considered to have been realised fairly well in the projects.
The RAY Network is coordinated from Finland
The RAY Network was established by the Austrian National Agency for Erasmus+ Youth in Action in 2008 on the initiative of a number of other National Agencies and researchers. Since then, it has expanded to a network of 36 partners. Since 2021, the RAY Network has been coordinated by the RAY Network Coordination at the Finnish National Agency for Education in cooperation with an international research partner (Youth Policy Labs). The RAY Network Coordination team consists of three people: a project manager and two coordinators whose tasks include finance and administration, communication and event organisation.
The RAY Network Coordination ensures the smooth management of the network and its activities at the European level. The RAY Network’s youth research and other activities will be celebrated across Europe on RAY Communication Day, 20 October.
– Enhancing the visibility of the RAY Network, its partners and activities as well as communicating and disseminating research findings are among the main objectives of the work done by the parties involved in the network, both on transnational and national levels. It supports disseminating our findings and work to different stakeholders, e.g. with the intention to share the impact of the programmes to beneficiaries and the wider youth field and youth work sector, and to contribute to our advocacy and information efforts for and with policy- and decision-makers, says Project Manager Carmen Teubl-Kiviniemi.
For researchers, European cooperation provides an opportunity to build networks with other European countries and to gain a better understanding of the similarities and differences in youth and youth work across Europe. The next time that the RAY Network brings together youth research, youth work and youth policy actors will be at the RAY Triangular Summit, which is being planned for autumn 2026 with the Irish National Agency. The event will include discussion on the latest results of the monitoring surveys and their impact on the future Erasmus+ programme period, starting in 2028.