10.5 Youth workers
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Status in national legislation
There are no top-level policies, measures or guidelines regulating the status of youth workers.
A ‘childcare certificate’ as described in the Police Register Act [Politiregisterloven] may be issued to persons who work or have tasks in youth clubs or in child and youth camps and where the tasks involve responsibility with minors or persons with learning disabilities.
Education, training and skills recognition
Child Care and Youth Work is a designated route in upper secondary school which consists of two years of school-based education and training, followed by two years of apprenticeship in a training enterprise. Training completed and passed in the subject will lead to a Trade Certificate with the professional title is Child Care and Youth Worker. A Child Care and Youth Worker can organise and carry out pedagogical programmes offered to children and adolescents 0 to 18 years of age.
There is no college level training programme for youth workers. There is a practitioner focused bachelor level semester course at the University of South-Eastern Norway. It is meant to qualify students for leadership positions within cultural and social pedagogical work in youth clubs and youth projects.
Apart from Erasmus+ public authorities do not organize or fund any training for continuous professional development of youth workers.
There is no procedure for the validation of skills and competencies gained by youth workers through non-formal or informal learning.
Mobility of youth workers
There are no national policies or programmes offering the possibility for youth workers to take part in exchange opportunities, cooperation and networking at local, regional, national and international level.
The youth programme of Erasmus+ provides organisations engaged in youth work with opportunities to travel abroad to attend seminars, training courses, networking events, study visits, and job shadowing/observation periods. Youth work organisations can apply to either send youth workers abroad or receive organisations and be responsible for hosting a group and developing a programme of activities for participants.