Stakeholder feedback indicated that there are several limitations with youth worker training currently available in Aotearoa New Zealand. These limitations are perceived to have negative impacts on the professionalism and quality of youth work practice nationally. Stakeholders noted that many youth workers have limited access to relevant training due to issues related to accessibility, cost, and time constraints.
Many youth workers have no formal training in youth work, in part because there is no legislative requirement for youth workers to gain a recognised qualification. Moreover, existing training programmes are completed at a point-in-time with no ongoing supervision of practice in the trained frameworks to ensure consolidation of learning. Formal courses are usually attended by individual workers rather than whole teams, meaning that the skills are not consistently known or applied by all members within a team. Most training courses are not well suited to whole-of-team training.
Stakeholders emphasised that the proposed Mauri Tipuranga youth worker training programme would be a welcome addition to the sector if it were highly accessible to urban and rural youth workers with the option of a whole-team approach (training all members of a youth work team), and if it included follow-up supervisory and training support to maintain the new knowledge at an affordable cost for social service organisations. They expressed an interest in having modules that weave together knowledge and skills which can be revised over time for relevancy and responsiveness to rangatahi diversity and different social service settings.
Key additional recommended training areas were: knowledge about working with migrant and ethnic communities, working with the rainbow community, the impacts of colonisation, and detailed information on working with Māori and Pasifika rangatahi. There was a strong desire for training which has a practical focus.
