Sustainable
Development Education Panel:
Survey of Youth Work
8. Recommendations
8.1 This report is timely given the public policy debate now taking place about modernising youth services. The issues raised in this report should be discussed widely within the youth work sector and among environmental and development education NGOs. The Panel, the government departments and their partners should take every opportunity to use the findings of this report to ensure that public and professional awareness is raised about the contribution that effective youth work can make to learning for sustainable development.
8.2 This debate should culminate with a conference to take the issues forward and create a closer fit between research, policy and practice in informal learning for sustainable development with young people. This could be arranged by the Forum convened jointly by the Department for Education and Employment, the National Youth Agency and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, with inputs from organisations and agencies which have a significant contribution to make.
8.3 The curriculum framework should be piloted by youth groups and organisations with the intention of establishing local demonstration projects which promote sustainable development. These projects should be closely monitored and the framework revised and refined in the light of their experience.
8.4 Initial and in-service training programmes with associated materials should be devised for youth workers, drawing on what is learned from the demonstration projects. The skills required to apply this curriculum framework should be mapped against those incorporated in the occupational standards currently being developed for the profession. This training should be financed through the DfEE Standards Fund, the DfEE National Voluntary Youth Organisations Grants Scheme and the DETR Environmental Action Fund. .
8.5 Further research should be undertaken into how best this curriculum framework can be differentiated, allow for the measurement of soft outcomes and lead to progression through different levels of engagement and achievement. This should be mapped against any other initiatives under way to specify and differentiate the youth work curriculum.
8.6 Further research should explore the scope for assessing and accrediting the learning and achievements of young people through youth work which leads to learning for sustainable development; and to see how such arrangements can best fit with those made by existing schemes such as the Duke of Edinburgh's Award.
8.7 Links should be established between this work and associated research and development work being commissioned by other Government departments, such as that being undertaken by Strathclyde University for the Department for International Development.
Page published 09 June
2000;
Page last modified
20 August, 2002