Youth work training levels show signs of recovery after hitting record low
Joe Lepper
Wednesday, March 16, 2022
The number of youth work training courses has begun to recover after reaching record low levels, according to latest National Youth Agency (NYA) figures.
The number of universities offering courses, the level of available programmes and students taking part in youth work training are all at a record low, reveals the NYA’s annual report for 2019/20.
But it also details “signs of recovery” that indicate improvement when figures for 2020/21 and beyond are released.
The NYA points out that four new courses that have already been validated were due to start welcoming students from the start of the 2020/21 academic year.
In addition, a further five new courses were validated during 2020 with discussions taking place that year place to validate another.
“The decline in available professionally qualifying courses has been arrested and course numbers are growing,” said NYA head of workforce and professional development Kevin Jones.
“While the trends in student recruitment continue to show a decline in this annual monitoring report, there are strong signs that this has reached its lowest point and will stabilise and hopefully reverse hereafter.”
However, the annual report notes that the gap between male and female students is the widest on record. While 76 per cent of youth work students are female, just a quarter are male. This is more pronounced at postgraduate level, where the gap is 79 per cent female to 21 per cent male.
Another notable change is that fewer students are joining courses directly from school, “with many undertaking the course as professional development in later years”.
Just under a quarter of students have a disability, adds NYA’s report.
It also found that the Covid-19 health crisis was a factor behind a drop in completion rates, due to changes in personal circumstances linked to the pandemic.
Courses have adapted through offering online lessons, which the NYA wants to see evaluated and reviewed with findings shared among courses.
The NYA’s report also notes that all but one of the courses have at least one full time youth work lecturer. The one college that does not instead employs several part time lecturers.
