Five years ago, the London Borough of Tower Hamlets was employing a growing number of unqualified youth workers and was struggling to develop the Transforming Youth Work agenda. There was little training available for youth professionals and universities had stopped supporting many local students, because of a lack of supervisors and assessors within the youth service to facilitate students' work placements.
THE SOLUTION
Tower Hamlets' principal youth officer Steve Sipple, who arrived in the borough in September 2001, says: "Because Ofsted criticised us for the number of unqualified workers, we needed to put some money into the service."
Sipple started by enlisting help from Tower Hamlets College's community development manager Ali Rusbridge, a former youth worker with a passion for the profession.
Together they started meeting university representatives. They also formed a youth work training forum, with voluntary sector representatives and training providers, who meet regularly to review and monitor the progress of training programmes. The youth service and the college also jointly fund a training officer post to oversee the work.
The college developed youth work training courses at NVQ levels 2 and 3 and helped the youth service develop an Introduction to Youth Work Practice course, a 12-week programme accredited by the Open College Network.
A Peer Work Consortium was also formed, consisting of local youth organisations that develop peer work programmes for young people as a possible first step towards youth work training.
THE OUTCOME
Sipple says a large number of young people who have been involved since the first peer work project in 2002 have since become youth workers. "On a practical basis, this is a first-class way of giving people a taste and feel for youth work," he says. "What's been found nationally is that often people are failing in NVQ level 2 training because they don't have a proper grounding."
The borough's efforts in engaging young people in youth work training came to fruition last week, when Tower Hamlets' first 16 youth work apprentices embarked on initial training, thanks to the college's success in securing support from the European Social Fund.
What's your challenge?
Contact Emily Rogers on 020 8267 4721 or emily-jane.rogers@haynet.com
TOP TIPS
- Create a volunteering ethos and include volunteers in training.
Give young people responsibilities and offer routes into training
- Make training fun by tapping into what motivates people
- Advertise posts with training attached; say you will take unqualified people and pay their college fees
- Ensure good line management and make sure training relates to the work
- Make sure programmes are interchangeable with other organisations and are accredited where possible
Thanks to Steve Drowley and the Quality Standards Team at The National Youth Agency.
