Institutional Context and Youth Work Professionalization in Post-Welfare Societies

Abstract

This article contends that opposition to professionalization has been led by writers from the United Kingdom and Europe who tacitly assume the (continued) presence of institutions that were a feature of the British context in the 1970s and early 1980s, and that still exist in modified form today. Most of these institutions are absent in the contemporary Australian context, and absent in many other post-welfare societies. The author concludes that in Australia there are significant gaps in institutional support for youth work, and that professionalization of youth work is necessary to address problems this creates. The article further concludes that in the current environment in Australia, on balance, the risks associated with failure to professionalize are greater than the problems associated with professionalization.

KEYWORDS:

• Australia
• professionalization
• quality
• Singapore social policy
• training
• youth work

Notes

In the United Kingdom in the late 1970s and early 1980s an intense debate on professionalization of youth work took place. This culminated in a decision to by the membership of the Community and Youth Service Association (CYSA) to apply for recognition as a trade union and to abandon their status as a professional association. The Community and Youth Workers Union (CYWU, now Unite!) was formed.

Occupational /professional closure: mechanisms that restrict entry to an occupation to those with professional membership/ recognition of formal qualifications—the professional equivalent to the union “closed shop.”

But see recent comment http://networkofregionalyouthworkunitsengland.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/institute-for-youth-work-why-the-consultation-matters/

Male union membership for full-time workers declined from 43% to 18% and female from 35% to 18% between 1992 and 2011 (ABS, 2011).

Bernard Davies provides a concise discussion of the transition from Welfare state informed policy to post-welfare neo-liberal policy in Britain in Davies (2009).

Youth Sector Training Councils, which provided CPD for youth workers, and collected information about training needs, had been funded by Federal and State government, but lost their funding during the 1990s. It is highly unlikely that government will reinstate institutions to support youth sector training quality.

http://www.headspace.org.au/

http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/medicare/medicare

http://www.waayw.org/

Australia was known as “the working man's paradise” because it had adopted the 8 hour day.

WAAYW in Western Australia; and, Youth Worker's Association YWA in Victoria, http://www.ywa.net.au/

http://www.facebook.com/YouthWorkSingapore

http://www.nyc.pa.gov.sg/

Australian Psychological Society, http://www.psychology.org.au/membership/applying/nonstandard/

Institution of Mechanical Engineers, http://www.imeche.org/membership/membership-registration/Fees

Institution of Mechanical Engineers offers a separate category of professional registration for engineering technicians who have completed apprenticeships in engineering.