The future scenarios of Estonia’s youth sector

The aim of the study was to create four alternatives, i.e. contrasting future scenarios for Estonia's youth sector by 2030.

Estonia’s youth sector is currently at the threshold of a new development phase, whilst still in the middle of the ongoing global COVID-19 crisis. In addition to this, young people and youth sector amongst others are also faced with major developments (megatrends), such as demographic change, the climate crisis and the changing labour market. The outbreak of war in Ukraine earlier this year has created additional challenges.

The study was born from the need to understand how young people in Estonia are affected by the above-mentioned challenges, as well as other important national and global developments, and how the youth sector and its related sectors (education, labour market and healthcare sectors) should adapt to these changes in order to be able to respond to young people's needs and support opportunities for their development. As a result, four alternative scenarios for the youth sector were created: "Estonia's castle in the sky", "Oho-aha", "Young people thrive on drive" and "Invisible young people".