Children's Workforce Guide to Qualifications and Training: Youth work
Charlotte Goddard
Friday, August 31, 2018
Training and workforce development in the youth work sector is one of the key areas of inquiry for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Youth Affairs, which launched a review into the role and impact of youth work in May. The findings of the inquiry will be reported at the National Youth Agency (NYA) annual conference this autumn.
Youth workers are increasingly taking roles outside traditional youth work settings, such as housing programmes, within the NHS, and in social care or youth justice-focused programmes. Youth work degrees are evolving to reflect this, with modules covering social care, health, social enterprise and business development.
However, as local authorities cut back on traditional youth work, funding that used to support youth workers through qualifications and training is dwindling. Research published by the children's commissioner for England and the Institute of Fiscal Studies this year suggests funding for youth services has fallen by 60 per cent since 2010.
While youth work is still a popular career choice, it is becoming harder to gain qualifications at entry level, particularly when it comes to Level 1 qualifications, according to London Youth. At a local authority level, youth workers can be youth support workers, with Level 2 and 3 qualifications, and professional youth workers at Level 6 and above. The Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) is the body that sets the national framework used to grade and pay youth work jobs, and local authority youth workers are paid according to its salary scale.
Research carried out by union Unite in 2017 found 79 per cent of youth workers surveyed had experienced changes to their terms and conditions, with attempts to move them away from JNC pay grades. In July, JNC staff side unions met with employers to submit a two-year pay claim from September 2018, which seeks to move the lowest paid staff onto the real living wage of £8.75 an hour (£10.20 in London). The unions also want all employees to receive £1,000 or a five per cent pay increase - whichever is greater - per year in 2018 and 2019. The claim follows eight years during which the majority of youth workers have seen wages either frozen or held to a one per cent increase.
The JNC also endorses youth work qualifications via the NYA. While it is possible to work with young people without a JNC-recognised qualification, the recognised training is a Level 2/3 qualification in Youth Work Practice for youth support workers. The qualifications have 35 optional modules. For professional youth workers, the standard training is a JNC-recognised professional youth work programme available at BA (Hons) or postgraduate level.
JNC qualifications are transferable across the UK and recognised by employers. However, latest provisional figures from the NYA show the number of higher education youth work courses available across the UK dropped again this year, from 44 courses in 2017 to 39 in 2018.
Among those axing JNC-accredited youth work degrees is the University of Worcester, which no longer offers its BA (Hons) Youth and Community Work course. However, other courses are still going strong, and some universities are launching new courses. YMCA George Williams College this year launched a new BA (Hons) Children, Young People and Families, which is recognised by the JNC and also transferrable to a wide range of careers working with young people, families and communities.
"Graduates no longer follow a well-trodden path to local authorities as professional youth workers and are as likely to be employed by the voluntary sector, or in a whole host of jobs where youth work skills are integral but don't appear in the job title," says Amanda Fearn, development director at NYA.
"NYA is also exploring with stakeholders a range of options that could facilitate access to level 2 and 3 youth work qualifications to gain a clearer understanding of how new employment routes can look."
The NYA and the Education Training Standards Committee are working with employers, unions, universities and others to establish flexible routes to qualification, including a trailblazer scheme to develop a youth work apprenticeship standard and degree-level apprenticeships. Standards have been developed for youth workers at levels 3 and 6, and work continues to secure approval from the Institute for Apprenticeships.
Youth scheme the National Citizen Service, delivered by nine different providers in England, is one area of youth work that is expanding. However, much of the work is seasonal. The Association of Directors of Children's Services has criticised the government for focusing on the NCS at the expense of a clear vision for youth work as a whole.
Through consultation with youth workers and sector stakeholders, the Institute for Youth Work (IYW) plans to trial this year a voluntary register for youth workers that is intended to support raised professional standards and recognition for youth work nationally. Learning is being drawn from other regions of the UK, such as Wales, that have a youth worker register in place already.
"If the sector wishes to progress work around protecting the job title ‘youth worker' or developing a license to practice in the future, this is a necessary step for us to take now," says Adam Muirhead, IYW chair of trustees.
Read more from CYP Now's Children's Workforce Guide to Qualifications and Training