Mental Matters: Learning Diary Templates for Youth Workers

Aims of the tool

The aim of this tool is to support youth workers in reflecting on their professional learning experiences during international cooperation projects, exchanges and job shadowing activities.

The templates encourage reflective learning, helping youth workers analyse the methods and practices they observe and consider how these ideas can be adapted in their own organisations.

They also aim to promote continuous professional development and knowledge sharing within the youth work sector.

Description of the tool

The Learning Diary Templates were developed during the Erasmus+ project Mental Matters – Supporting Young People with Mental Health Issues.

During the project, youth workers participated in international exchanges and job shadowing visits between partner organisations. To support reflection and learning during these activities, the partners created structured templates that guide youth workers through the process of documenting their observations and experiences.

The templates help users to:

• Reflect on methods and practices they observed
• Analyse what worked well and what could be improved
• Identify ideas that could be transferred to their own organisations
• Document their personal learning and professional development

These templates are designed to be easily reused by other youth organisations, youth workers and trainers in similar learning contexts.

They can be used during:

• Job shadowing activities
• Youth worker exchanges
• Training courses
• Erasmus+ cooperation projects
• Other non-formal learning activities

The templates are available in both English and German and can be downloaded in the "Available downloads" section.