Yet many of us involved in accredited informal programmes have encountered an attitude that there is something unconvincing about accrediting young people's achievements: the idea that if you're under 25 and breathe for long enough you'll get your certificate.
To achieve, according to my dictionary, is "teaching or attaining something, especially by effort". Who, critics ask, ensures young people's attainments involve effort? In doing so, they underestimate young people and their workers, betraying a misunderstanding of informal education and the aspirations of the young. Youth workers appreciate that one of their main tasks must be to stretch young people, guiding them to seek and savour a challenge.
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