NYCI resource for volunteers involved in Youth Work

‘Starting Out’ The National Induction Training Programme for Volunteers engaged in Youth Work Practice provides a framework for the content and learning outcomes for training volunteers. By way of introduction it is firstly important to consider the background to this resource.

In respect of volunteer training in youth work, to date, the main voluntary and statutory youth organisations have developed their own volunteer training programmes. While there may be common elements across the existing programmes, so far, there has been no common programme for training volunteers in youth work. Additionally, in 2007 the Child Protection Awareness Programme – Good Practice for the Youth Work Sector was launched.

Training has been rolled out to deliver this programme and it is estimated that more than 2,000 people have participated in this programme. In response to an identified need, the Practice Sub-Committee of the National Youth Work Advisory Committee (NYWAC) contracted a Project Consultant Team (Louise Monaghan & Siobhán Mc Grory) to support the development of a nationally agreed, standardised programme for training volunteers in the youth work sector in Ireland. This work is part of an overall commitment by the Youth Affairs Section of the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs to develop a quality, effective and value for money youth service for young people in Ireland and should be viewed as complementing the Quality Standards Framework (QSF) for youth work.

While the QSF is aimed at staff-led youth work provision it also emphasises the importance of volunteer support and development and, therefore, aims to enhance all aspects of youth provision. However, it is also recognised that there are specific needs regarding the training of volunteers and therefore significant work has been invested in developing this standardised programme to support volunteer training in the youth work sector.

Download Starting out (Adobe pdf file)