Engagement proposal for Youth for Europe initiative

Recommendation on communication channels for increasing participation of young women in education, volunteering, exchange and employment in Finland, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Slovakia and Spain

Abstract

The topics related to youth development have a significant impact on the direction of the European policy-making, given the importance of youth interaction with society and active citizenship in shaping a sustainable future on the national and international scales. While majority of the studies, current initiatives and policies in the field of youth development and communication are focused on expanding the number of opportunities for youth to engage in various activities, this thesis takes a different approach by examining and proposing targeted communication tools to ensure sufficient awareness of youth of such opportunities. This research helps to design an effective communication framework for the European Commission’s Youth for Europe project to target youth on a per-country basis, as opposed to the generalised approach. The scope of this thesis includes six selected countries – Finland, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Slovakia and Spain – and focuses on increasing the engagement of young women, as the target group, in the areas of youth education, volunteering, exchange or employment. The purpose of this research is to define the priority focus area out of the four selected areas and develop a recommendation on the national communication channels, leveraging cultural and gender-specific factors. Consequently, three research questions were stated for this thesis, with the first one aiming to identify a priority engagement area for each country, the second one centring on the choice of important cultural and communication factors, and the third one focusing on the actual recommendations of communication channels for the six selected countries.

The research is divided into three key steps in accordance with the research questions. The first step involves the analysis of the quantitative data for participation of young women in education, volunteering, exchange and employment, and the qualitative data on youth policies implemented in the relevant areas in each selected country. The second step evaluates important cultural factors using the Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory (1980) and the cultural framework of Edward Hall (1976) (CFI, 2022) (Würtz, 2005). Furthermore, it examines the quantitative data for female youth engagement on social media, their digital skills and preferences for alternative communication channels. The third steps provides the final output of the research in a form of the recommended communication channels for each country, supported by qualitative data on the benefits and shortcomings of each channel.

This thesis contains several key findings, as per the three research questions. Upon completing the first step, youth volunteering was identified as a priority focus area for Finland and Luxembourg; youth employment was defined as a priority focus area for France, Italy and Spain, and youth education was selected as a priority focus area for Slovakia. In terms of the cultural factors, Finland, France and Luxembourg were determined to exhibit low-context and information-oriented cultures with preferences for efficient communication, while Italy, Slovakia and Spain were determined to exhibit high-context and relationship-oriented cultures with a high importance of personalisation and human interaction. As for the communication modes, young women in all countries actively use social media and prefer mobile-friendly interaction. Whereas young females in Finland, France and Spain have a relatively high level of digital skills, Italy, Luxembourg and Slovakia appear to have more young women with lower levels of digital skills, indicating the need for non-digital communication tools.

In accordance with the third research question, this thesis concludes with a recommended combination of digital and non-digital communication channels for Youth for Europe that is specific to each selected country, given the identified cultural factors and preferred ways of communication. In terms of the digital communication channels, the use of Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, emails and newsletters, blog, Youth for Europe website, a mobile application and promotion via government websites is recommended for all six countries, but varies in terms of the implementation timeline. In contrast, the use of Snapchat is recommended only for Finland, France, Luxembourg and Slovakia; the use of TikTok is recommended only for Finland, Italy and Spain and the use of Twitter is recommended only for France, Italy and Spain. In addition, implementing digital newspapers is recommended for Slovakia and Spain; using a podcast is recommended for Italy, Luxembourg and Slovakia, and 19

promoting through influencers is recommended for Italy and Spain. In terms of the non-digital communication channels, the use of partner networks, including partners within the relevant focus area, universities and other educational institutions and events and fairs is recommended for all six countries, but varies in terms of the implementation timeline. Furthermore, the use of leaflets is recommended for France, Italy and Spain; the use of radio is recommended for Luxembourg, and the use of television is recommended for Finland, France, Italy and Spain. Promotion through the representative office is only recommended for Italy, given its location, and the use of youth ambassadors is only recommended for Slovakia.

The findings of this research represent an important step towards the recognition of the importance of cultural factors and different communication styles of young women, as well as other target groups within youth. This thesis contributes to the existing studies in the field, addressing the current research gap, and encourages policy-makers to design targeted communication frameworks to ensure that young people have equal awareness of new opportunities developed for them. In terms of the future research in the field, it is recommended to evaluate content considerations, in addition to communication channels per se, the significance of promotion in native languages, preferences of youth based on qualitative surveys and the impact of factors other than gender, such as socioeconomic background and ethnicity.