Learning in youth work can be viewed in different ways and there are plenty of opinions about it. For some it should be the main focus, for others it is something that happens so it does not need to be focussed on. But what is it we are talking about, what is learning in youth work?

In a very simplistic way, learning in youth work is a recognition that youth work provides a learning environment for young people. This statement is very specific for me. It does not say the youth worker, or the youth work programme, or some youth work policy, it says, “youth work” provides a learning environment. The very nature of youth work, the concept, provides a learning environment. Yes the youth worker, the programme of activities and any related policies support this but the concept of youth work is the foundation. 

The space is more than the physical space in a building or on a street corner. A youth work space should be a sense of belonging, a feeling of safety (as much as possible), a desire for exploration, a sense of freedom from the pressures of school and or home, an identity, an ability to stretch boundaries, and it should include fun. This combination of things that make youth work what it is also make a fertile ground for learning. 

YOUTH WORK ENCOURAGES LEARNING

I think most of us, if not all of us, in the youth work community of practice would agree that youth work encourages learning, both consciously and subconsciously. It is how we approach this learning and what we do with it that matters and this is where disagreement can arise. Some years ago I worked as a youth worker educator in the Western Balkans for an international non-governmental organisation and associated university. We taught youth work through a series of modules. As a result of this training course and the wider work of the organisation, many youth projects emerged. Almost all of them based their approach to youth work on what they learnt from us. After some time I realised that in many cases, the model of youth work being used was one that educated young people on anything and everything and that the youth work being conducted was a series of workshops, one after another, one topic after another. 

While an educational workshop is an important part of youth work, if that is all that the programme consists of, is it still youth work? 

Another perspective is work with young people that does not consciously include non-formal learning at all, leaving informal learning to do its job in a natural way. Here the youth work could be simply a provider of fun, games and entertainment or even just a means to keep young people off the street. Fun is an all important part of youth work but if that is the only thing on the agenda, is it still youth work?

ANYTHING CAN BE YOUTH WORK BUT NOT EVERYTHING IS

Other out of school providers of space and activities for young people are for example, arts clubs and sports clubs. An expression I came up with a few years ago stated; “anything can be youth work but not everything is”. Yes, youth work probably is taking place in the arts club and in the sports club, at least to a certain extent and there is certainly a lot of learning taking place too. However, neither of these examples is a youth work space, primarily because youth work is not the aim of these organisations.

For the space to be a youth work space it needs to be based on the principals and values of youth work. In terms of learning in youth work, the space needs a balance. There needs to be non-formal learning happening in the form of, for example, workshops and other activities and it needs to provide a space for the young people to have fun for the sake of having fun. 

The role of the youth worker is key, and one of the most important jobs is to build relationships with the young people and to engage with them in order to draw out the learning from both informal and non-formal learning moments that happen in the space. 

The purpose of FOCUS learning is to explore this topic more deeply, provide tools and methods to draw out that learning and to explore how that learning can be transferred into daily life both inside and outside of the space. 

A NOTE TO THE READER:

We are producing a series of blog posts for the FOCUS learning web site based on youth work and learning in youth work. If you have something you would like to share in the form of one page of text or a topic you would like us to cover, please contact us through the web site.