EDITORIAL: Practice makes for better youth workers

That's partly because the role of the youth worker is a complex one, which many trainee workers facing their first practical role quickly have to come to terms with. But practical work is probably the best place to start.

This is why trainees on Plymouth City Council's innovative youth work apprenticeship scheme (YPN, 23 April, p5) are sent into the field as soon as possible. The scheme aims to encourage young people into youth work who wouldn't normally do so, and has just used the money to get eight more students started.

On location, they will find themselves dealing with what the job of, for example, running a youth club involves. And sometimes, the art of doing nothing in a busy sort of way is a valuable, but intangible, skill to acquire. That way you're a presence in the session, without standing out like a sore thumb. Because the trainees will certainly be fully tested by the teenagers they are working with. When a new face appears, young people want to know how far they can push that person. In a youth work setting, this could take numerous forms, such as pushing the boundaries on swearing, violence, drinking and eating in forbidden areas, trying to access porn sites in the computer room or simply trying to avoid paying an entrance fee.