1. The education and training of
youth & community workers:
Challenges and opportunities for Youth and
Community Work courses in England
Graham Griffiths, Bradford College
Alan Smith, Leeds Metropolitan University
TAG Representatives on NYA ETS

2. Recognising the context we are in
None of us have escaped the current ideological
attack on public sector services, and that
includes the so-called ‘ivory towers’ of academia
and yet, we are all still here!
So lets consider how we can work together more
effectively?

3. Why are we both here ...
Alan Smith
Head of Youth & Community Work at Leeds Met
Member of NYA ETS representing Training Agencies Group
Graham Griffiths
Head of Youth & Community Work at Bradford College
Member of NYA ETS representing Training Agencies Group
Member of Institute for Youth Work Steering Group
Both ETS and IfYW involve representatives from CHYPS
– Rod Norton and David Wright
- Garath Symonds and previously Mike Counsell, ETS Chair

4. Who and what is TAG?
We are the professional association for lecturers in youth
and community work education, covering 60+ institutions
across the UK, N. Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
We have more than 250 members, and are represented on
all the Education and Training Standards Committees.
Our membership includes the writers, researchers and
teachers of the profession, and also covers teams / courses
that deliver QCG and other related qualifications.

5. Younger students enter with limited range of experience and very few with Youth Support qualifications
Students exit to a wide range of post professional qualification employment in Young People’s Services,
Youth Offending Services, Voluntary and Statutory settings, Health provision, Residential provision,
Outdoor Education settings, Commercial and Business sector, mutuals and co-operatives and
increasingly Housing Associations, Social Enterprises and Schools
Youth and community
work
Other forms of work
with young people
and communities
JNC
Programmes in
Youth and Community
Work which meet NYA
Professional
Validation
Requirements
Other forms of work
with young people
and communities
Other forms of work
with young people
and communities
Professional
(JNC)
Youth and
Community
Work
QAA
Benchmarks
Student
Finance
NYA
Requirements
HEI
regulations
Employers
Other forms of work
with young people
and communities
The challenge for Higher Education
Changing Job
Market
NOSSNC -Cap

6. What are the key challenges for HEIs?
Our next intakes will graduate in 2016, having followed a
course of study, possibly written and approved in 2010/11.
Our students will leave with debts in excess of £27,000
We are in competition for student numbers within our own
Institutions, and we are relatively costly (time / resources)
There are fewer ‘established’ placements with experienced
supervisors
Students need nearly 900 hours of assessed practice (U/g)
and 600 hours (p/g) in a ‘shrinking pool’ of placements that
remain ‘unpaid’.

7. Internal Changes to Higher Education
• Withdrawal of HEFCE ‘block funding’ and full-fee loans for
undergraduate study-‘the free market’ but imposes a Student
Number Cap (SNC) to limit the overall numbers and availability of
places, exemptions for the ‘brightest students’ – ABBs and above
• In the new ‘marketplace’ of Higher Education, Institutional
decisions are made based on flawed data-sets (NSS / KIS) driven
by a managerialist agenda dominated by quantitative data.
• Manipulation of market position is achieved by increasing ‘tariff
points’ recruiting Doctoral-level staff, at expense of professional
experience and over-recruiting ABBs

8. How does it work ... ?
• We all follow NYA Validation Guidelines
• Our students will be engaged in (action) research
around current issues (Social Media)
• The range of placements mean we are preparing
students for a changing world – Local Authority
context / increase in schools work / changing
social world (for young people) and impact of
austerity
• But there remain a great many constants ...
flexibility, self awareness, willingness to take
responsibility, inter-personal skills, etc

9. What is the role of Higher Education in
the education and training of Y&CW
• Graduate skills are more than just subject specific, and
therefore assist qualified workers in an increasingly mobile
workforce
• Encourage professional discourse within the
sector, allowing academic rigour to be applied to
research, evaluation and assessment of practice
• Equity with other professions – teaching, social work, etc
• Allows employers to measure a ‘benchmark’ or have
minimum expectations from a potential employee who has
undertaken a JNC-recognised programme – through NYA (-
we all use the same QAA Subject Benchmarks / NOS)

10. Facilitator of young
people’s learning
and engagement
Advanced
practitioner
coach - mentor
Advocate for young
people and change
agent
Policy watchdog
Manager
So what does it mean ...
The role of the professional worker is changing...
Adapted from Tony Gallagher, HMI – April 2013

11. Adapted from Tony Gallagher, HMI – April 2013
Sec of State
Priority?
1 ‘Positive for
Youth’ 2012
impact ?
2 Strategic
Leadership
- the ‘youth
sector’
3
The policy world we operate in is changing... and it
feels like there is very little that we can influence

12. Adapted from Tony Gallagher, HMI – April 2013
Mergers
- cluttered
world?
4 Diminishing
narrative
about quality
and outcomes
5 Youth scrutiny
and
participation-
good news ?
6
But maybe some aspects can be developed further ...
Students in new settings, telling stories and making news

13. .
.
Authenticity
• Lack of
consensus
about the
purpose of
youth work
Youth Work
• A
‘contributor
to’ or ‘in its
own right’?
Easy?
• It looks
easy!!
Adapted from Tony Gallagher, HMI – April 2013
Perhaps this is our biggest challenge...

14. Tony’s challenge to our students …
.
.
.
Communicating
outcomes
• ‘Poor at
communicating
outcomes’ – case
not proven
2013
• An optimistic
time for
opportunistic
endeavour ?
Adapted from Tony Gallagher, HMI – April 2013

15. Some examples of creative responses;
• Sheffield Hallam working with voluntary sector to manage a
disused youth centre, run as a permanent placement setting
• A ‘pilot’ in Yorkshire and Humber to appoint a student to a large
voluntary sector organisation for their full period of study, but to
‘be placed’ in a variety of settings
• Hosting training events for free, offering CPD to staff who provide
placement supervision, exploring KTPs and commissioned
research and evaluation
• Using the part-time funding methodology to create local access
to courses, and generate income for services that host training
• Newman University College – accelerated p/time degree in 3 yrs
The response of Higher Education to challenges facing
the young people’s workforce

16. • What might a degree curriculum look like, given the range of
‘stakeholders’ and your expectations? (NYA re-write)
• Support widening access and student retention for all types of
students: work-based; distance-learning; part-time and full-time?
• Work with CHYPS to ensure we know what a youth and
community work graduate will ‘look like’, and what role will they
undertake once they have qualified – remembering this may be 5
years away?
What more do HEIs need to do?
- developing a joint agenda

17. What more do YPS need to do?
- developing a joint agenda
• Consider how can you better engage with
programme management and development
• Support joint training and practice initiatives
• Consider what support and frameworks are required
and/or do you need to make the most from working
with HEIs?

18. What can we do in the near future
- developing a joint agenda
• External Examiners
• Inputs to meetings – possibly training
• Research specific areas
• Establish an on-going form of liaison to encourage
policy makers hear the voices from the sector
• Continue to liaise and work together with other
agencies
• Others?

19. And finally for follow up
Janet Batsleer: Chair
J.Batsleer@MMU.AC.UK
Alan Smith: ETS Rep
A.S.Smith@leedsmet.ac.uk
Graham Griffiths: ETS Rep
g.griffiths@bradfordcollege.ac.uk