Fears for future of youth work in Yorkshire

Youth workers in Yorkshire are telling us they fear for the future of the profession following a big drop in universities offering it as a degree.

Figures from the National Youth Agency show the number of Youth and Community work degree courses have halved nationally since 2008.

Last year alone saw the closure of seven undergrad courses, including the one at Huddersfield University. It means Hull University is the last remaining provider in the region.

“Because of a generation of youth service closures, there’s a generation of young people growing up who’ve never heard of youth work or a youth worker,” says Dmitry Fedetov, operations director at The Youth Association which works with young people across West and South Yorkshire.

“Therefore they don’t know the profession exists. So what’s been happening is the BA Youth and Community Work courses were getting fewer and fewer subscriptions year on year.

“So you’ve now got a perfect storm of a growing mental health epidemic, youth crime high on the agenda, basically a massive need for youth work…. and all the courses closing,”

“We do have a mini crisis to solve.”

There are other forms of youth work training, and it’s hoped the rollout of more degree-level apprenticeships will help produce more skilled workers. But Dmitry is concerned these are mostly being picked up by people who are already in the sector rather than attracting new students into the profession.

“The big question is how do we as a sector attract people into the profession, and that’s perhaps the biggest worry we have,” says Dmitry.

“That puts all the onus onto the sector, onto charities like us, to also think about recruitment campaigns. There’s not many other sectors that have to do that. Primary schools don’t have the burden of educating the nation about teaching, it already exists in the public consciousness.”

This is a concern echoed by Emily Pearson, Community Programmes Manager at Newground Together which runs youth clubs around Halifax.

“We’re struggling for a workforce,” she says.

“There needs to be educated professionals with the knowledge of drugs, of alcohol, of county lines, of all those things that can spot the warning signs.

“There’s a worry for youth work as a profession because there’s less people coming through, and yet the need is as high as it’s ever been if not higher.”

Dmitry says there’s a misconception around what youth work actually involves and what a difference it can make to a young person’s life:

“Youth work’s a skilled profession, akin to teaching and social work. It isn’t just hanging about with them and having a kick about and a game of pool. It’s all about developing the hard skills and the soft skills, the achievement of personal goals, the achievement of pride for the first time in your life.

“There are young men who we’re working with at the minute who were on the fringes of drug-dealing, county lines, gang violence… some got charged. They then met a couple of our youth workers and over three years they’ve done a countless number of things with them.

“Some of them are now on college courses, some of them are now working… but I think what’s most important is they now have a different outlook on life.”

The NYA, which is the Professional Regulatory and Statutory Body for youth work in England, is aiming to train 10,000 qualified full time youth workers through youth work degrees and apprenticeships by 2030.

They say the launch of seven new degree-level apprenticeships last year have enrolled almost 200 new learners, and those providers are predicting up to an 80 percent increase in intake next year.