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Youth work
training
Join the professionals
Youth work is to become a degree-level profession by
2010 in a bid to put the sector's status on a par with teaching and
social work. Helen Gregory finds out what this means for the future of
youth services. Youth workers might work alongside social workers and
teachers, but the fact that they only need to study for two years means
they're out of step with these other professionals. Steve Drowley,
manager for quality standards at The National Youth Agency (NYA), says:
“There has been concern that a two-year course just isn't long enough to
fit in all the work, while social work and teaching both require a
three-year graduate qualification. It's expected nowadays that most
full-time youth workers will go straight in and manage a project or
staff, which meant the management quota of the youth work training
needed to be increased.”
Rise in standards
The disparity has resulted in a policy change by The NYA's Education and
Training Standards Committee, which will result in youth work becoming a
degree-level profession by 2010. This change only covers England,
although Wales and the Republic of Ireland are moving that way. All
three are following in the footsteps of Scotland, which already has a
degree requirement. Although the committee claims that three out of four
youth work students currently go on to a degree course, everyone
entering the profession five years from now will need a three-year
degree rather than the current minimum higher education diploma or
foundation degree. Mary Wolfe, principal of the YMCA George Williams
College, says doing a three-year degree means students are required to
do more work with different age ranges and are expected to have a wider
breadth of associated practice and experience. Youth work degree courses
usually spread placements over three years, and by year three students
are studying the philosophy and politics of community development and
are also able to make claims for funding. “They should also be ready to
apply for jobs that involve staff support and supervision,” says Wolfe.
“They need to keep up a level of on-the-job training.” This third year
offers far more chance to specialise and build on skills, giving
students time to refine their knowledge. Roz Bond, admissions tutor at
Bradford College, says: “Three-year degrees will give us a bit more
elasticity and we should also be able to stretch placements over a
longer period.” Most higher education institutions welcome the imminent
change and don't think it will harm their admission numbers. In many
cases, it could even encourage more students into the profession. St
Martin's College in Lancaster, for example, says instead of losing
students as it feared when the college started offering graduate
qualifications, it found that more younger students wanted to do a
three-year course.
And Marian Charlton, principal lecturer at Leeds Metropolitan
University, says the three-year degree will allow material to be covered
in greater depth and enable specialisms to be offered within programmes.
But studying for three years could cause problems for part-timers. They
usually take three years to complete their diploma and are often funded
by employers. The Community and Youth Work Training Agencies Group is
worried about what will happen if part-time students are taking up to
six years to qualify. Secretary Alan Smith, who is also senior lecturer
in youth and community development at St Martin's College, Lancaster,
says: “It's a long time to be supported by an employer.”
Bradford College's Bond adds: “Part-time graduate students are on day
release and get funding, but they will probably have to spend four years
studying in the future. Most people will probably just grit their teeth
and get on with it, but I'd love to see bursaries introduced like you
get in social work.”
Part-time concept
The Education and Training Standards Committee is addressing the
disparity, says The NYA's Drowley: “We're trying to move away from the
concept of full-time and part-time youth workers, as many professionally
qualified youth workers work part time, while some who aren't qualified
work full time.”
It means that where support workers work alongside professional youth
workers, the requirement for a three-year course will apply to
professional youth workers but not to these support workers. Both the
statutory and voluntary sector will be affected, although Connexions
workers will still have a separate training programme. Doug Nicholls,
general secretary of the Community and Youth Workers' Union, believes
the changes should lead to an increase in youth worker pay, but youth
workers themselves are concerned that it could discourage people from
entering the profession. In a climate where many areas already have
recruitment problems, it might be a disadvantage, says Shirley Costigan,
principal youth officer at Northumberland County Council, who thinks
three-year courses could be off-putting, especially to local people
looking to become part-time youth workers. Her counterpart in Kingston
upon Thames, Gillian Hall, agrees: “One of our most successful methods
of recruitment is to take on trainees — and not all of them want to do a
lengthy degree course. We need to make sure there's a variety of ways
into the profession to attract the right workers.”
As a senior youth worker in charge of Kingston's
outreach team, Helen Terry is a good example of someone who might not be
a youth worker today if she had had to take a degree. She juggled
studying full time for her diploma while bringing up her son and decided
not to study for another year to get a degree. “I think it will put a
lot of people off,” she says. “You should be allowed to go in at a lower
level and use your experience to train. A lot of people can't afford to
study for three years.”
But not all professionals agree. Mike Cooper,
principal youth officer at Knowsley Borough Council, believes the
changes will place youth work on a more equal footing with other
professions. “Modern agencies are being asked to contribute to the
personal skills development of young people, which means we've got to
have a more skilled workforce,” he explains. “We've got to make sure
workers have those complex skills to work in effective partnership with
other agencies.” The same goes for the voluntary sector, says Martin
Hardwidge, director of youth work training at Oasis Trust, which runs a
youth work and ministry course at diploma and degree level. He doesn't
believe it will put any potential recruits off. “We find students are
committed to doing the courses,” says Hardwidge. “They've made a
decision that they want to go into youth work and are really motivated.”
The types of training available to workers and the level of skills and
knowledge they have need to be as good as possible, according to Andrew
Morris, staff-side secretary at the Joint Negotiating Committee for
Youth and Community Workers. “There's a need to recognise that a lot of
qualifications are moving to a three-year basis and many universities
are looking at distance learning,” he says. “There aren't that many
opportunities for this currently and we want to encourage it.” Higher
education institutions are already thinking about how they will adapt
their courses. Some are looking at putting programmes together to lessen
the impact of the increase in study time.
Flexible learning
YMCA's Wolfe is looking at new modules such as working with homeless
young people and Christian youth work, which she hopes will allow the
college to recruit from a wider base. Others are deciding how they will
support part-time students to meet the new demands. St Martin's College
in Lancaster is now validating a new type of course labelled “blended
learning”, whereby part-time students will study one day a week for 44
weeks a year and get their degree in four years. Senior lecturer Smith
explains: “Some of it will be at college and some distance learning.
That way they will be no worse off.” At Leeds, Charlton is considering
accrediting part-time students' previous employment experience rather
than asking them to do five years' work but she counsels: “We will have
to review the structure of the employment-based/part-time routes if we
want them to retain the same quality.”
Time line:
2005: The Education and Training Standards Committee will revise
the validation requirements of higher education courses from January
2005.
Higher education institutions will start looking at how they can address
the transfer to a degree qualification. Students can continue on diploma
courses
2007: Requirements will be updated to bring
courses into line with the 2010 plans as well as to update the
curriculum. Students can still start diploma courses
2010: All higher education institutions will
offer a three-year degree course and, from September, all youth workers
starting the professional training course will have to do a three-year
degree.
3 February 2005
http://www.ypnmagazine.com/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=full_news&ID=6349
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