The training and professionalization of youth workers in Europe has been implemented differently in each social and political context. This chapter focuses on how the training and professionalization of youth workers has evolved at a European level and its current situation, as well as concerns and challenges that arise in international debates. The training and professionalization of youth workers in Europe is currently being systematized through the deployment of regulatory frameworks, most of which are promoted by the Council of Europe and the European Union within the framework of the European convergence process. Despite this, there is much diversity in terms of types of training, recognition levels, and intervention models. However, consensus is gradually being reached regarding functions and competences that can contribute both to the credibility and recognition of professionals and to the improvement of their working conditions and quality of interventions.

PurposeThis study aims to identify the contextual and relational factors that enhance and limit the empowerment of young people from the perspective of social education professionals.Design/methodology/approachBronfenbrenner's bioecological model made it possible to locate the narratives of the educators in the territory. These narratives include field diaries, i.e. hybrid narratives that include visual, written and spoken materials, and focus groups with 11 educators from different fields of action and related to youth empowerment projects.FindingsAccording to these educators, the most important factors for empowering young people are their immediate environment, and the issues that affect them most. For these factors to be empowering, young people need to be accompanied, with support based on connectedness, horizontality and the creation of safe spaces and learning experiences. Both the microsystem and the mesosystem form the immediate reality for their action. Aware of this, educators do the work of connecting with the exosystem.Practical implicationsIt is evident why communities are spaces with opportunities for youth empowerment, and the authors observe the need for more transversal and less welfare-based social and youth policies that generate empowerment instead of dependency.Social implicationsThis methodology evidenced the environmental structures of educators and the dissimilar levels to explore and understand the work of educators and the complex interrelationships, which play an important role in empowerment processes.Originality/valueThis research presents a new perspective that allows traditional qualitative reflection to be embedded in the bioecological model. All of this sheds light on relational ecosystems with young people and proposes youth policies, in this case, oriented towards empowerment.