Editorial: A youth work approach to education
Andy Hillier
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
This month we've made the slightly controversial decision to look at the work of a college as opposed to a youth project (see p14).
The college doesn't employ youth workers but relies instead on mentors and vocational tutors to teach mainly 14- to 16-year-olds who are in danger of leaving education without any qualifications.
While youth workers may not be present in the classroom, the curriculum the college applies should be familiar to many readers. It uses UK Youth's Youth Achievement Awards to help young people re-engage with learning by letting them study at their own pace and work to goals set around their personal interests.
At the 7KS South Park Enterprise College, where the scheme was piloted, this approach has proved a big success - so much so that the government has awarded UK Youth more than £4m to expand the programme to 10 more areas.
As any youth worker who has tried to run a curriculum-based programme will know, its success relies heavily on motivating and not coercing young people to take part. Compelling teenagers to do something usually results in failure, especially if the group has a reputation for rebelling against the system.
Awarding money to UK Youth to expand its alternative curriculum should be seen as a shining endorsement of a youth work approach to learning and recognition that formal education can learn lessons from its non-formal cousin.
Hopefully, the end result will be that young people who had previously been written off by mainstream education will be given a proper chance to learn and flourish. That has to be welcomed, no matter whether you're a youth worker, teacher or learning mentor.
- Andy Hillier, editor, Youth Work Now, andy.hillier@haymarket.com.
