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POSITION PAPER
‘EDUCATION OF YOUTH WORKERS’

Adopted at the General Assembly of ECYC

in Strasbourg, France, on 9-10 November 2018

Note: like all other ECYC policy papers, this is designed to be a living document that
can be amended as necessary by the membership of ECYC at a General Assembly. It
will inform ECYC’s policy and advocacy platform for work on supporting youth work.

Preamble
Youth workers play a key role in developing inclusive, democratic and peaceful societies.
Youth work can be educative, empowering, participative, expressive, inclusive and a key
actor for change in all levels of community and in young people‟s development, but this
depends on whether the drivers of the sector, all those engaged in youth work provision,
hold key competencies and have access to specific resources. Youth workers need ongoing
training and/or qualifications, especially because they have to perform a wide variety of
functions.

In response to this, calls to develop youth worker education are received with near universal
acclaim; per se, there is recognition that quality education is a path to youth workers being
capable of delivering better youth work provision and ultimately seeing better outcomes for
young people and communities.

Exactly what quality youth worker education entails is subject to each young person‟s and
youth worker‟s setting and the relative definition is for all stakeholders in that context to
identify through dialogue and research. Nevertheless, it is still of value that the ECYC
network, and the youth work sector at large, take steps to ensure calls for quality youth
worker education move beyond simple calls for “quality education” and instead, as
stakeholders, we work to identify and define the broad components and principles of the
concept to enhance advocacy efforts and raise the standard youth worker education across
Europe.

To help this process, this position paper will:

 Define what the title “youth worker” denotes;
 Identify current modes of provision of youth worker education;
 Identify a non-exhaustive list of component concepts of quality youth worker
education;
 With reference to CM Rec 17/2 and the EU Youth Goals, make calls for the
development and improvement of youth worker education;
 Feed into ECYC‟s work on education of youth workers in 2019.

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What is a Youth Worker?

A youth worker is identified through their intentional engagement with young people, which
directly and/or indirectly facilitates the personal, educational and social development of
young people. This will often be through activities designed to support development
throughout both non-formal and informal learning. While youth workers can fulfill this role on
a paid professional basis, many who engage with youth programs are volunteers or part-time
employees, and many do not receive the benefits or earnings associated with employment.

A further characteristic is the diversity of educational routes towards, and the interdisciplinary
nature of, being a youth worker; youth workers can have a wide variety of formal educational
backgrounds and many can enter the category without any formal education or training and
gain knowledge and skills informally while working or through non-formal educational
opportunities. With effective systems for the monitoring and evaluation of the quality of youth
work provision as well as opportunities for continuous quality professional development, both
routes can provide youth workers who are effective and positive players in young people‟s
lives and communities.

Current Modes of Youth Worker Education:

As does the role of youth workers, the mode of youth workers education varies greatly
between countries and regions, due to different degrees of legal formalisation and state
investment into the youth worker sector. Drawing on the diverse national realities of the
youth sectors in ECYC‟s member organisations, ECYC recognises that quality education can
be achieved through distinct forms and models of education provision.

Youth workers can currently receive educational opportunities from:

 Higher education training, in the form of formal certification and further education;
 Vocational Education and Training;
 Training and orientation programs for new and current youth workers;
 External providers: Training seminars and resource centers;
 Credentialing systems/programs at local, national and international level (ex. CoE Youth
Work Portfolio)
 Mentoring programs;
 Informal resources and spaces: newsletters, online fora, and spaces for youth workers to
share experiences.

Components of quality youth worker education:

 A foundational principle of inclusivity.

ECYC recognises the need to engage in proactive movement to remove barriers of access
to education by using new and innovative forms of educational provision, such as online and
flexible education and training services. At the same time, ECYC recognises the need to
ensure inclusivity in terms of access to traditional modes of quality education and training
provision.

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 Adaptive Framework and Definition

Considering that „best practice‟ is a living and relative concept, any framework for quality
youth worker education must centre itself on this fact. Any framework and definition
developed must have the capacity to respond to trends in society and the developing
understanding of social issues. In this regard, ECYC echoes the call in the CoE
Recommendation CM (2017) 4 on Youth Work to:

“Strengthen dialogue between youth work, youth policy and youth research”
and
“[foster] national and European research on the different forms of youth work and
their value, impact and merit”1

 Competency and value based education

Drawing on the Declaration of the second European Youth Work Convention (2015), the
Council of Europe Recommendation on Youth Work (CM/Rec 17/4) recommends member
states ensure the establishment of:
“A coherent and flexible competency-based framework for the education and training
of paid and volunteer youth workers that takes into account existing practice, new
trends and arenas, as well as the diversity of youth work. Stakeholders, including
youth workers and young people, should be involved in developing this framework”

Reflecting on this, ECYC:

 Acknowledges the value and necessity of competency-based youth worker education
and training as a means to ensure a certain minimal education and training standard.
 Recognises that, in complement to competency-based youth worker education and
training, education of youth workers should always be underpinned by the values and
principles of youth work.
 Recognises that neither education nor youth work is value-free. The process facilitating
education, the provision of youth work, and engagement with young people are all
directed by values. Values which are shaped by practitioners and organisational
worldviews.
 Identifies the development of youth worker values as a pillar of quality youth worker
education.

Building on this, ECYC:

 Recognises CoE Member States have a responsibility to realise the establishment of a
competency-based quality educational framework for youth workers as outlined in
CM/Rec(2017)4
 Recognises the role of the ECYC network, national, regional, and local level youth work
organisations, in the form of non-formal educational service provision as well as national
and international advocacy, in this process of realisation of a competency and value-
based educational framework for youth workers.

1
Recommendation CM/Rec(2017)4 adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe,
2017

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 The development and improvement of Youth Studies

ECYC highlights the key role formal youth worker education at third level holds in the
development of the youth work sector. The lack of formal educational opportunities for youth
workers in some national realities is critical and compromises the ability of the sector to
support the development of young people and communities. Third level credentials in youth
work should be widely accessible, adapted to youth workers‟ needs, evidence-based, and
developed with input from the youth sector.

 Supporting international strategies for the development of quality education

Calls in this position paper align with the aims of „EU Youth Goal 8‟2, which, amongst further
positions, calls for all young people to have access to adequately funded non-formal
education at all levels that is both recognised and validated. ECYC recognises that this
aspect of the EU Youth Goal will not be realised without adequately trained and resourced
youth workers as young people‟s access to non-formal educational opportunities depends
heavily on a resourced and competent youth sector. This goal acts as a focal point for
cooperation across civil society and state institutions to raise the overall quality of education
for young people; ECYC supports this goal and its political positions.

Conclusion
Quality education gives youth workers a knowledge of the youth sector and an opportunity to
develop it. Youth Worker Education should be restructured to work more effectively with
other sectors and community services to meet the education needs of youth workers and
support needs of young people. ECYC highlights the need for professional recognition for
youth workers, enhancing opportunities for in-service education and access to external
quality education opportunities.

Implementation:
In early 2019, ECYC and its Member Organisation RFYP are coordinating a conference on
the topic of education for youth workers. This conference aims to provide space for youth
work experts at national and European levels to share their knowledge and experience and
to use these perspectives to draft future actions in this area.

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Structured Dialogue on Youth Cycle VI, European Union Youth Goal (Goal Eight),[website], 2018,
http://www.youthgoals.eu/ (accessed 1st October 2018)