Sam McCready Head of Subject (Community Youth Work) University of Ulster

1. Sam McCready Head of Subject (Community Youth Work) University of Ulster

2. Youth work contributing to educational outcomes Challenges and successes

3. Youth work and education The central purpose of youth work is educational and the work is concerned with personal and social development. Youth work is educational and the processes we create are therefore designed to create learning and the activities, programmes and processes through which youth workers engage with young people are the means, not the ends of youth work.

4. Youth work and education Youth work is about non formal education through association in groups. Youth work begins with informal approaches which are person centred and moves into critical engagement as planned, structured interventions which can be issue or problem centred.

5. Educational Services The Department of Education provides a range of educational services which recognise that education is more than schooling and youth work provides both a complementary service and at times an alternative service to formal education in Northern Ireland.

6. Department of Education Priorities The education service’s activity will be characterised by the following 4 main strategic priorities: • Enable learners to fulfil their potentialthrough ensuring equality of access to a quality education and tackling the barriers to children’s learning. • Prepare every learner for lifethrough improving quality and raising standards for all children, supporting a curriculum which is relevant to individual aspirations and to social and economic needs, and motivating and empowering our young people to contribute positively to society, now and in the future. • Transform education for learnersby building the best support for educators across all sectors and phases and maximising the resources focused on teaching and learning. • Provide the best environment for learningby securing the provision of buildings, equipment and materials that offer children a motivating and rich environment in which to learn.(DE Business Plan 2008/2009)

7. Examples of DE desired strategic outcomes • Motivated young people who enjoy and are engaged in learning, encouraged and supported by their parents or carers • All young people having access to an Education and Youth curriculum in settings that meet their individual learning needs

8. Examples of DE desired strategic outcomes • Young people with the self esteem to be confident, happy and ambitious and contribute positively to their local community and wider society. • Young people who are creative and have developed, to their full potential, the skills, attitudes and expectations needed to live, work, learn and play in a global society.

9. Examples of DE desired strategic outcomes • Young people educated in a safe and caring environment where they are respected and receive the support they need • All those involved in the education and youth sectors demonstrating respect for those from different backgrounds and circumstances and valuing diversity as enriching society.

10. NI School Curriculum • To empower young people to achieve their potential and to make informed and responsible decisions throughout their lives • To develop the young person as a contributor to society • To develop the young person as a contributor to the environment and the economy

11. Each of these sits comfortably within a youth work paradigm • Empowering practice is a core value underpinning youth work • Development of young people as contributors lies at the heart of the key drivers of youth work • Participative democracy • Social Justice

12. When the subject of outcomes arises there can often be two particular tensions • Outcome led work is different from work with outcomes- Getting the balance right is crucial • An emphasis on some outcomes rather than others might mean that important outcomes are rendered invisible

13. Role of Outcomes • Within any discussion about collaboration and complementary working between formal and non formal education there is a need to explore the role of outcomes • Characteristics of youth work and outcomes can be linked into the preferred youth work Policy and Practice Framework model (based on Hardiker) and determined within each category

14. Model of Youth Work Delivery Youth Service Sectoral Partners Group

15. This model identifies the nature and outcomes of youth work interventions at each of its levels • Universal • Early Intervention • Prevention • Targeted Intervention

16. Mapping Participation outcomes “In the majority of youth service provision inspected, the young people participated in the management and development of their own programmes. The participative structures allowed young people from a variety of urban and rural backgrounds to develop their self confidence , leadership skills and effective team-working, where they had to make decisions and solved a range of practical problems” Chief Inspectors Report (2008-10) October 2010 ETI

17. Example of how participation outcomes can be mapped into the model

18. Universal services for all children and young peopleParticipation opportunities for all young people within a youth work setting

19. Early Intervention services Participation work for young people who may not involve themselves in or connect with the universal services

20. Prevention/Specialist planned intervention servicesParticipation work for young people & groups that have become or are in danger of becoming invisible

21. Targeted intervention servicesParticipation practices with those most excluded from resources or with acute need

22. Future Challenge Measuring generic outcomes to provide service wide and standardised evidence to enable a year on year analysis of progression

23. Future actions • Sectoral agreement on generic outcomes • Development of a user friendly outcomes measurement framework • Methods of data collection – related to groups not individual young people Proportionate to the organisation or groups involved