A new Act, shortly to be presented to parliament, will provide for the recognition of youth work as a profession. Professionalisation has long been a feature of work and activities that support the development and well being of young people, the most obvious of which is education. The teaching profession is a well-established and respected one. In more recent time, professionalisation has also spread to related fields such as psychological and social services. However, one area in which professionalisation has been slow in developing is youth work. While youth work has been a feature of non-formal learning since the late 19th century, its accreditation and recognition as a profession has lagged behind its overall development and impact. This can be accounted for, in part, by the very definition of what youth work is and what it is meant to do.
In Malta, youth work is a non-formal learning activity aimed at the personal, social and political development of young people. It takes into account all aspects of diversity and focuses on all people aged between 13 and 30 years. Youth workers engage with young people in communities and support them in realising their potential and in addressing life’s challenges critically and creatively to bring about social change. The principles of youth work are based on young people’s voluntary participation, friendliness, informality, integrity, ethics and empowerment. Youth work focuses on young people at a stage in their lives in which they are developing their awareness, seeking answers and beginning to explore their beliefs, values and choices.
The role of the youth worker is to nurture this development process by helping young people to build self-esteem and self-confidence, develop the ability to manage personal and social relationships, promote learning and develop new skills, enhance spiritual life (in the case of faith-based youth work) and build the capacity of young people to consider risk, make reasoned decisions and take control of their own lives as well as to develop a “world view” which widens horizons and invites social commitment.
Over the past ten years, youth workers in Malta have been seeking to develop a professional identity of their own; an ethos and an ethic that is particular to a discipline, as opposed to being considered as an offshoot of social work, youth voluntary work or even sport and recreation activities. Youth workers feel that it is important for them to be recognised as members of a distinct profession.
Developments in Malta over the past 20 years have laid firm foundations for the formal recognition of youth work as a profession. In 1993, the University of Malta established an Institute of Youth Studies to provide training for those who wished to pursue a professional career in youth work. The first group of graduate students founded the Maltese Association of Youth Workers (MAY) in 1998, which subsequently published a Code of Ethics for Youth Workers in 2001. As a result, MAY was recognised as a professional association by the Maltese Federation of Professional Associations in 2003 and consequently, youth workers have been represented in Government consultations, along with other professionals, on the development of relevant policy areas.
These and other recent developments, including the increasing focus on youth work and related issues at an EU level, the revised Maltese National Youth Policy (2010-2013) and, in particular, the establishment of Aġenzija Zgħażagħ as the National Youth Agency, provide a coherent policy framework that not only facilitates but indeed makes necessary the formal recognition of youth work as a profession.
The Youth Work Profession Act to be presented to parliament will give formal professional recognition and status to youth workers, as well as regulate the profession and determine the qualifications and conditions under which youth workers can acquire such recognition. It is yet another policy milestone following Aġenzija Zgħażagħ and its array of services, including the setting up of Youth Activity Centres and Youth Cafes and the National Empowerment programme. As such, it will not only be welcomed by youth workers and the Institute for Youth and Community Studies that trained these youth workers and contributed immensely towards the drafting of this Act, but also by all of us who have the development and well being of young people at heart.