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Success at Young Leaders course

Published: 18/01/2019

^{Young Leaders: Shannon Roberts, David Peters, Eboni James, Cerys Lyons, Ryan Hughes, Kaelin Corran, Abby Tudor, Phoebe Woodward, Connor Roberts, Owen Butler}

Flintshire County Council and Wrexham Glyndwr University recently worked together to run the first “Young Leaders” course.

The course was developed by Ann Roberts, Flintshire’s Senior Manager Integrated Youth Provision (IYP), to address the lack of qualified young leaders for future youth provision work.

Glyndwr worked in partnership with Flintshire to ensure that the pilot course delivered robust training for all the young people involved. The course consisted of five days of study. 

The young people were recruited from local youth clubs and youth sector provision.  It was important for them to show an interest in being future workers and demonstrate potential.  

Ann Roberts, said:

“The young leaders worked on various topics including the values and principles of Youth Work, United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, equal opportunities, needs of young people and communication. They also completed ten hours face to face within an Integrated Youth Provision placement to gain experience. Whilst on placement, they learnt how to complete session plans and risk assessments and they planned and delivered an activity to young people.”

Flintshire County Council’s Chief Officer for Education and Youth, Claire Homard presented the awards and said:

“This is a fantastic achievement and a really innovative approach to addressing the need for qualified youth leaders in the future. We want young people to be aware that this is an exciting and rewarding potential career pathway. I am particularly pleased that we have been able to prioritise this investment in youth work when all services across the Council, including the Integrated Youth Provision, have had to make significant financial efficiencies over the last three years because of the challenging economic climate. It is vitally important that we do as much as we can to protect the future of Youth Services in Flintshire.”

Senior lecturer in Youth and Community Work, Hayley Douglas, added:

“Helping to develop the next generation of youth and community leaders is central to the work we do here at Wrexham Glyndwr University.  That includes not only our taught degree programme, but also projects such as this, working with young people in the community and alongside partners such as Flintshire County Council.

“That work – which helps to protect youth service provision in an innovative way – has proved rewarding both for us as staff but also for the young people we worked with, all of whom should be very proud of their achievements.”

Now that they have completed the course, the young people will be coached and mentored by IYP officers and they will be encouraged to apply for any future opportunities on a voluntary or paid basis.