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Youth worker

Youth workers guide and support young people aged 11 to 25. They organise activities to help with personal and social development.

Average salary (a year)

£23,250 Starter

to

£37,500 Experienced

Typical hours (a week)

37 to 39 a week

You could work

evenings / weekends on a rota

How to become a Youth worker

You can get into this job through:

  • a university course
  • working towards this role

University

You can do a professional youth work qualification like a degree that is recognised by the National Youth Agency.

Degree subjects include:

  • youth and community
  • community and youth studies
  • youth and theology
  • informal and community education

If you have a degree in another subject, you can take a postgraduate qualification to give you professional youth worker status.

You'll also need relevant experience to get on to a degree or postgraduate course.

Entry requirements

You'll usually need:

  • 2 to 3 A levels for a degree
  • a degree in any subject for a postgraduate course

More information

Work

You could work as a part-time or volunteer youth support worker and complete work-based qualifications to use as entry on to a degree course.

Volunteering and experience

It's important for you to get experience of paid or unpaid work with young people. You'll often need at least 1 year's experience to apply for professional youth work courses and jobs.

Find out about local opportunities for voluntary or part-time youth work through the National Council for Voluntary Organisations or by contacting your local authority youth service.

More information

Further information

The National Youth Agency has more details about careers and training.

What it takes

Skills and knowledge

You'll need:

  • excellent verbal communication skills
  • sensitivity and understanding
  • the ability to work well with others
  • customer service skills
  • patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations
  • to be thorough and pay attention to detail
  • counselling skills including active listening and a non-judgemental approach
  • knowledge of psychology
  • Being able to use a computer terminal or hand-held device may be beneficial for this job.

Restrictions and requirements

You'll need to:

What you'll do

Day-to-day tasks

Your day-to-day tasks will include:

  • organising sports, arts, education and drama activities
  • counselling, coaching and mentoring
  • working with young carers or those at risk of offending
  • assessing needs and running projects that deal with issues like health, bullying, crime or drugs
  • managing volunteers and part-time workers
  • keeping confidential records
  • controlling budgets and applying for grants and funding
  • working with social workers, teachers, probation officers and the police

Working environment

You could work at a college, in the community, in an office or at a school.

Your working environment may be physically and emotionally demanding and outdoors some of the time.

Career path and progression

With experience, you could take on a more specialist role in an area like mental health. You could also become a team leader or manager.

Other options are to gain further qualifications and move into social work, teaching, community development or counselling.

Training opportunities

Apprenticeships In England

We can't find any apprenticeship vacancies in England for a Youth worker right now.

The Find an apprenticeship service can help you with your search, send alerts when new apprenticeships become available and has advice on how to apply.

Courses In England

Certificate Level 2 CYPW

  • Provider: Vocational Training Services Care Sector Limited
  • Start date: 01 January 2019
  • Location: Colchester

Level 3 BTEC National 90 Credit Diploma in Public Services

  • Provider: GATESHEAD COLLEGE
  • Start date: 02 September 2019
  • Location: GATESHEAD
Find courses near you

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