During the latter half of the twentieth century, youthwork has emerged as an occupation responsible for the delivery of a broad variety of services for young people. During the 1970's and 80's in particular, there has been a rapid multiplication of the number of people employed in the role of youthworker. As an occupation, youthwork has had placed upon it by society certain expectations regarding the standard of the work performed. This is particularly so with respect to the interaction between the youthworker and young people with whom they work. This expectation is not unlike that placed upon other occupations working directly with people (and young people), such as teachers and social workers. It is a reasonable societal expectation that workers such as teachers, social workers and youthworkers, should provide a service of a certain standard, commensurate with the responsibility ascribed to the role of that occupation. Education and training is recognised as being fundamental to the attainment of recognised standards of competency in both teaching and social work, as well as many other occupations which have a direct service delivery role with people. A spectrum of such opportunities have been developed and provided for these occupations. There is an expectation that the practice of such occupations is fundamentally linked with the education and training provided. However, this has not been so with the youthwork occupation. The provision of education and training has not grown with the expansion in the occupation. Furthermore, the linkage between education and training, and practice, was not recognised in this field for many years. Questions about how and why this has occurred, and how and by whom it should be redressed, are to be explored in this Study. That youthwork is an occupation is a fact. There are thousands of youthworkers employed around Australia. This Study asserts that the provision of education and training opportunities provided for this occupation are inadequate in general. A cohesive policy framework for such provision is also lacking. Australian society sanctions the occupation of youthwork by providing millions of dollars of resources per annum. It expects, rightly so, a quality standard of performance from the occupation, and services who are employers. Monitoring through formal evaluation and the application of performance indicators are part and parcel of such resource allocation. But, the means to achieve such quality standards - education and training - have not been adequately recognised or provided. This situation is clearly anomalous, and must therefore be addressed and resolved.