How can we make the learning that takes place throughout the Youth AI Lab workshops visible? And how can young people track their progress without turning the exercise into a grade or judgement? To answer these questions, the consortium chose a simple, visual format: a skills tree that turns learning into quests to explore together.
The idea draws on the Maker Skill Trees created by Steph Piper, an Australian creative technologist known as Maker Queen. These printable templates make it possible to visualise progress, identify skills already used and discover new avenues for learning.
Each tree contains 73 hexagonal spaces, each representing a skill or experience. Foundations appear at the bottom of the tree and more advanced learning at the top. Five spaces can be customised to suit an individual’s or group’s goals. There is no need to complete everything or follow a strict order: above all, the tree is a map for locating a learning journey and choosing the next steps.
The official repository now includes dozens of trees covering digital fabrication, programming, electronics, creative practice and everyday life skills. The resources are published under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence: they may be shared and adapted for non-commercial use, provided Steph Piper / Maker Queen is credited and the same licence is retained.
Youth AI Lab adopted this visual approach to create a tree dedicated to digital and AI literacy. The tool is based on DigComp 3.0, the fifth edition of the European Digital Competence Framework for Citizens, published in 2025. The framework retains five broad areas and 21 competences while integrating AI-related knowledge, skills and attitudes throughout. The complete version contains more than 500 learning outcomes.
Rather than reproducing the entire framework, the Youth AI Lab tree selects 68 outcomes and turns them into “quests” tailored to the project’s learning journey. These quests are organised across six levels and linked to the main phases of the teaching methodology, from observing AI in everyday life to designing, evaluating and presenting solutions.
The interface tracks the project’s four labs separately: Le retour des Pacman’s in La Rochelle, Digitale Wolven in Antwerp, Gorgs IA Studio in Barcelona and FARO (Future-oriented AI for Responsible Outreach) in Naples. Each lab has its own colour and can mark the quests already explored during its workshops. The tool is available in English, French, Italian, Catalan and Dutch.
The digital version of the tree makes it possible to compare the learning journeys of the four labs.
The tree is not intended to certify on its own that a skill has been fully mastered. It complements the project’s other assessment tools by highlighting the topics covered, the abilities young people believe they can use and the possible next steps. It can be used before, during and after a workshop cycle to support self-assessment and discussion with education teams.
At the transnational meeting in Barcelona in June 2026, the consortium decided to make it a shared tool for all four labs. The tree therefore provides an overview of the learning explored in each country and allows the groups to discover the other teams’ journeys.
A physical version can also be displayed in host venues. Printed hexagons placed on a wall, together with colour-coded markers, make it easy to see which areas of learning have already been covered and which remain to be discovered. The digital version connects these journeys at European level, while the display in each lab keeps progress tangible and close to the young participants.
A physical version of the skills tree displayed in a lab.