Abstract:

Of all socio-demographic groups, young people are the most successful in adapting to a changing world. Young people do not separate online and offline, they translate habitual everyday practices into virtual space, create new types of activities using Internet technologies, they are as social as possible due to their constant presence in the online space, they are always connected and ready for social interaction. In the context of the pandemic, it was young people who became the driver of changes in social participation, since they are already immersed in modern technologies, many of which employees of non-profit organizations had to master on an urgent basis.

The relevance of the article is determined by the fact that at the moment there are no studies that give a complete picture of what digital competencies young people have, what is the potential of these competencies for the development of social participation and assistance to non-profit organizations, and what competencies need to be formed among young people in order to increase this potential.

The purpose of the article is to identify the educational needs of youth for online social participation.

Scientists from the Ural Federal University (Russia) conducted a survey of young people in the Sverdlovsk region aged 14 to 24 years (N = 1105). The sample is quota, the error is not more than 3.5%. Quotas used in the sampling frame: gender, age, type of educational institution, type of settlement.

Main conclusions:
1. The respondents feel sufficient responsibility for the events taking place in the locality where they live, and are ready to get involved in social participation if it benefit people;
2. One of the motives for the social participation of young people is to acquire new competencies;
3. More than half of the research participants were engaged in online volunteer activities (creating and maintaining websites of organizations, working with Wikipedia, publishing articles in blogs, working in open access projects, online consultations, etc.);
4. Based on the analysis of a group of variables, the basic needs of young people for online social participation were identified: deepening knowledge about vulnerable groups of the population, methods of forming the tourist attractiveness of the region, expanding ideas about the history of the motherland, developing communication skills and digital competencies applicable in social participation.

Keywords:

Youth, Social participation.