A licence would require an individual to gain a particular level of qualification in order to be registered as a professional worker. The decision to keep youth work as an unlicenced profession means that anyone can continue to call themselves a youth worker - a point that divides the sector.
Despite this, the voluntary registration scheme for workers proposed by the National Youth Agency (NYA) continues to move forward regardless. Earlier this year, the NYA committed £30,000 to explore the feasibility of a voluntary register and discovered "considerable support among key stakeholder groups and individuals for a registration scheme".
The agency obviously didn't ask me. If the scheme goes ahead it will be only for Joint Negotiating Committee-qualified professionals, although could be extended to voluntary and youth support workers. But registration will require a payment from individuals. As a qualified worker, I would therefore have to buy my own registration into a scheme that imposes particular values and sanctions upon my work.
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