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

Youth work contributing to
educational outcomes
Challenges and successes

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.

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.

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.

Department of Education Priorities
The education service’s activity will be characterised by the following 4 main strategic
priorities:
•Enable learners to fulfil their potential through ensuring equality of access to a
quality education and tackling the barriers to children’s learning.
•Prepare every learner for life through 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 learners by 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 learning by 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)

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

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.

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.

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

• 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

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

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

Model of Youth Work Delivery
Youth Service Sectoral Partners Group

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

Example of how participation outcomes can be
mapped into the model

Universal services for all children and young people
Participation opportunities for all young people within a youth work setting
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WORK EXPECTED OUTCOMES
Assets-based approach Development of ‘thinking skills’
and personal capabilities
Maximising naturally-occurring
opportunities for participation
Greater assertiveness
Creativity Decision-making skills
Responsive interactions and
programmes
Greater self-efficacy
Analytical Greater Analytical skills –
understanding of how individual
actions can affect personal
and social change.
Facilitative process More representative voice
for young people
Contains dialogue – a two-way
exchange of listening &
More responsive youth work services

Early Intervention services
Participation work for young people who may not involve themselves in or connect
with the universal services
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WORK EXPECTED OUTCOMES
Analysis of Context influences
content and approach
Greater access to existing services,
resources and information
Community engagement Increased sense of belonging
Strongly relational Increased sense of individual purpose
Analytical Greater understanding of societal
patterns & structures
Planned but non-formal Learning experiences that can be
recalled and articulated
Delicate and brash Sense of personal satisfaction
Collective actions Greater sense of collective purpose

Prevention/Specialist planned intervention services
Participation work for young people & groups that have become or are in danger of
becoming invisible
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WORK EXPECTED OUTCOMES
The nature of the group gives clues as to
content of work
Growing sense of individual &
collective identity
Group are not homogenous but multi-
dimensional
Greater awareness of and openness to
diversity
Intensive engagement & relational work Greater resilience to prize and
champion oneself
Explicit focus on participative
democracy & social justice
Greater analysis of society and systems
Project-based or time-bound Sense of individual & collective
achievement
Tangible outputs produced

Targeted intervention services
Participation practices with those most excluded from resources or with acute need
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WORK EXPECTED OUTCOMES
Intensive individual support Building resilience to deal more readily
with anxiety-evoking situations
Working to find and practice the voice
of the young person
Greater articulation of their own message
and voice
Stimulate growth through challenges Developed problem-solving skills
Advocacy role for worker Greater access to existing services,
resources and information
Analysis of exclusionary systems &
processes
Greater understanding of links between
individual circumstances/situations and
societal structures.
Strategic input to impact on policy &
systems
Clear explicit messages communicated to
policy makers.
Building alliances among individuals
to combine strength of voice & action
Growing sense of ownership of the
message and the process
Collective actions that reflect a collective
message

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

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