Ian Layton, rural youth development worker, Lincolnshire County Council

I did a BA in Youth and Community Studies at Crewe & Alsager College in the early 1980s. This also qualified me to be a teacher, though I never had any interest in doing that.

- What was your first job?

It was with Derbyshire County Council looking at how to implement its community education policy. That led to a community tutor post with primary schools. I hated it. Eventually, I went travelling and worked with Greenpeace in Australia, including a stint on the Rainbow Warrior. Then I ran Greenpeace in Derbyshire for five years.

- Why to did you return to youth work?

It was hard work trying to save the world, so it was time to move on. I got a full-time job with Somerset Rural Youth Project. It was different to the pit villages I knew - community structures seemed weaker. The issues were about social change - gentrification, house prices, and how some people see teenagers as not fitting their vision of the countryside.

- And now?

After five years of rural detached work in Warwickshire, I've moved to Lincolnshire. In West Lindsey we have some of the most sparsely populated areas in the UK. We can't hope to work directly with large numbers of young people, so our added value as statutory workers is to help change the policies and practices of other agencies.