My ongoing self-education is both formal and informal, including courses, conversations with young people and colleagues, reading books and individual reflection on my work. If any method is most important it must be dialogue - a conversation in which participants hope to learn something. This is the basis of youth work, particularly in detached settings, and is the primary way I develop my own practice.
But formal qualifications are not the be-all and end-all. My youth work diploma course was stimulating, gave me access to a range of tutors and built my confidence to understand and challenge systems I disagree with. I would recommend studying to anyone. But I will not be celebrating next year when it becomes compulsory for new youth workers to study to degree level or higher to be formally qualified.
My most inspiring colleagues have been a mixed bunch: qualified and unqualified, paid and unpaid. People with lives beyond the youth club bring something extra to the role, and many are attracted to this work because it is practical rather than academic. The majority of youth workers are volunteers with no formal youth work qualifications. It would be arrogant, even offensive, to tell these committed and often highly skilled colleagues that they are not "proper" youth workers.
When we become a graduate profession, the wage and status gap will inevitably widen. Those who walk the streets on rainy evenings and get kept up all night on residentials have always been paid less than those who sit in a warm office and get home in time for dinner.
I am not judging our managers, some of whom work hard for their staff and young people, but it is wrong that bureaucratic skills are valued more than youth work itself. The more qualified we become, the less contact we have with young people. Colleagues thought I was crazy when I finished university only to keep my part-time sessions rather than getting a management job, but I studied to be a better youth worker, not to get a mortgage.
If more graduates mean a more critical workforce, that will be something worth celebrating. But academia is not the best or only route to better practice, and there are many ways of learning. Instead of making study compulsory, we should value the great diversity of education, experience and background that enriches the experience of the young people we work with.
- From the Frontline is written by a London-based detached youth worker
