About - Jean Monnet Chair on Youth Work and Non-Formal Education in Europe

As part of the Jean Monnet Chair on Youth Work and Non-Formal Education in Europe, Professor Thimmel will offer lectures, seminars, and workshops on this topic to students, and strengthen consultation and cooperation with policymakers and international committees.

Prof. Dr. Andreas Thimmel has been Professor of Social Work Theory with a focus on social education in the Faculty for Applied Social Sciences at TH Köln since 2003. In 2011, he became the executive director of the Institute for Childhood, Youth, Family and Adulthood (KJFE), as well as manager of the research unit Non-Formal Education. The research unit Non-Formal Education conducts foundational, supportive, and practice-based research, as well as evaluation and consulting on the basis of academic knowledge for policymakers and agencies in diverse fields of non-formal education. A central component of the research unit’s activities is its international and European orientation.

Since 2000, Professor Thimmel’s research has focussed strongly on the fields of international youth work, educational youth excursions, extracurricular youth and adult education, and political education. He has closely followed developments in both theory and practice. Over this period of observation and research activity relating to youth education and youth policy practice, Professor Thimmel has published extensively. In consistently integrating international and European perspectives, he has developed a unique approach to social work research on youth work, which coalesces around a theory of reflexive internationality.

European Memberships and Networks:

• Workgroup on Child and Youth Policy in Europe and the National Workgroup on Child and Youth Welfare (AGJ)
• National Advisory Body for the EU Program Erasmus+ YOUTH IN ACTION and the European Solidarity Corps
• Coordinating Group Research and Practice in Dialogue - International Youth Work
• Founding Member of the European Platform on Learning Mobility (EPLM)
• Member of the advisory board of the Transfer Agency for the European Youth Work Agenda in Germany
• Member of the advisory board of the Centre for Political Education, Essen
• Member of the advisory board of the European Youth Policy Unit at the German Youth Institute (DJI)

The activities of the Jean Monnet Chair are supported by a network of research assistants and students:

    Janica Clemens, B.A.
    Mohammed Alikaj, B.A.

Former staff members:

    Younes Alla, B.A.
    Maike Möntmann, B.A.
    Viktoria Wierschem, B.A.
    Neriman Gök