Austria

The Austrian Youth Strategy aims to strengthen and develop youth policy across sectors and to take the realities of young people's lives better into account. In September 2020, the federal government renewed its commitment to the strategy in its Government Programme 2020-2024. The youth strategy is described not as a static document, but rather an ever-developing process that involves all federal ministries. An overview of the ministries' individual implementation measures can be found on the Chancellery's website. The Austrian Youth Strategy identifies 35 youth goals from four main fields of action:

• Learning and employment;
• Participation and initiative;
• Quality of life and a spirit of cooperation; and
• Media and information.

On a national level, "Reality Checks" strive to ensure that youth participate in the development of objectives and measures relevant to the strategy. In 2021, the Federal Chancellery published a progress report on the Austrian Youth Strategy.

Due to the federal structure of the Austrian government, responsibility for youth policy is divided between the central federal government and the federal states. Article 15, the so-called "fallback clause" of the constitution, assigns all those competencies, which haven't been conferred to the federal government, to the federal states. The Federal Chancellery holds the primary authority for youth policy at the federal level. Its Department for Family and Youth leads and coordinates the cross-sectoral youth policy carried out by all ministries. Each federal ministry has a "youth coordinator" who supports the internal processes and serves as a contact partner for the Department for Family and Youth. In December 2021, a State Secretariat for Youth was created within the Federal Chancellery and is responsible for youth policy agendas. The operating unit for the Austrian Youth Strategy is the Youth Competence Centre in the Federal Chancellery. It coordinates the process, offers knowledge and skills, and establishes contact with experts. The goal of the Youth Competence Centre is to develop a stable network between a diverse group of youth policy stakeholders.

The Austrian National Youth Council (BJV) is the official and legal representative body of youth in Austria with 59 member organisations. It was established in 2001 through the Federal Youth Representation Act (2000). According to the EU Youth Wiki, as the legal representative of Austrian youth, the Council is "empowered to have a say in all important political decisions" and takes part in policy negotiations. The BJV names the following fields of action:

• Education and work (education, employment and non-formal education);
• Youth and politics (participation, international affairs, citizenship education, anti-fascism);
• Children and youth (child rights, protection of minors, sexual health and reproductive rights, volunteering, housing, sustainability, health, military/civil service);
• Equality (girls/women, gender mainstreaming, social and distributive justice, diversity/anti-discrimination, inter-generational justice).

There are also some youth councils at the federal state level that consult and advise the regional governments and youth departments. As stated in the EU Youth Wiki, the states decide whether the consultation is compulsory.

According to the "Youth Work in Austria" website, a youth worker is a professionally qualified person who works full-time or as a volunteer in extracurricular child and youth work. Different terms are used to describe persons working in this field, including "specialist for open child and youth work", "youth information worker", and "youth/youth group leader". 

Within the federalist structure, responsibilities for extracurricular child and youth work are divided between the nine federal states and the federal government. However, as stated on the Federal Chancellery website, according to the federal constitution, the federal states hold the primary responsibility in this area. The main tasks of the federal states include:

• Lobbying measures in the children's and youth sectors;
• Youth protection;
• Public relations work;
• Youth welfare;
• Basic training.

The competences required for youth work are covered in the National Qualification Framework (NQF) as well as the Competence Framework for Child- and Youthwork. According to the EU Youth Wiki, there is no statutory training in order to become a youth worker; however, all federal states have universities offering social work degrees, some offering special training courses in youth social work.

According to the Budget Overview of Austria for 2022, EUR 7.7 billion (USD 7.9 billion) were allocated to "Family and Youth" in the country's 2022 budget. As stated in the EU Youth Wiki, this is an increase of EUR 52 million (or 0.7%) as compared to the 2021 expenditures. Up until recently, this budget was under the realm of the former Ministry of Labour, Family and Youth. For education, EUR 10.2 billion (USD 11.1 billion) was allocated for 2022. It is not possible to determine an amount specifically dedicated to the implementation of the Austrian Youth Strategy. The determination is complicated by the fact that each federal ministry has its own youth agenda and goals.