ySKILLS/Youth Skills project is taking off

At the beginning of 2020, we are very proud to announce the kick-off at KU Leuven on the 16^th and 17^th of January of ySKILLS or Youth Skills, a H2020 project (Grant Agreement Number 870612) that will be carried out during the next four years by an interdisciplinary consortium of 15 research teams from 13 countries in Europe.

Besides great opportunities, digitisation poses also many dangers/risks for children and young people. There is a lack of scientific data on impacts and contexts of the digital activity of children and adolescents, and we still lack solid knowledge of how to avoid it. The EU-funded ySKILLS project will conduct academic longitudinal survey research in six European countries on risks and opportunities from the information and communication technologies (ICT) uses for children and adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17. The goal is to understand which skills they must obtain to knowingly and critically use ICT for their wellbeing, education, social life and how they can build resistance against negative impacts. The project will enable new strategies and policy recommendations.

IRTIS members will participate on two work packages from the ySKILLS project. We lead the WP2 which is focused on integration of theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches. WP2 aims to develop a comprehensive theoretical model that would help understand the associations among the social and psychological antecedents of digital skills and consequences for children’s and adolescents’ wellbeing. We will also participate in WP4 which focuses on conducting a longitudinal quantitative data collection. You can read more about the project and our involvement here.

You can follow the progress of the project on ySKILLS Facebook page and via Twitter.