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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219440 |
| Date | January 1992 |
| Creators | Webber, Craig, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Craig Webber |
Page generated in 0.0024 seconds