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Youth work is defined as activities that intentionally seek to impact older children and adolescents. The main purpose of youth work is to enhance the personal and social development of young persons. So youth work is normally aimed to engage young people in coordinated programmes, including those that are recreational, educational, or social by nature and design. Youth workers promote the personal, educational and social development of young people aged between 13 and 19, although in some cases they may extend this to those aged 11 to 13 and 19 to 25. Youth workers normally perform managerial, analytical and consulting activities in the sphere of youth work. They meet challenges of social pedagogy and education.

Work with children and young people often requires high levels of skills and judgment. It is important that you choose the right qualification for the field in which you want to work. Different varieties of youth work include centre-based work, detached work, outreach youth work and school-based work.

Centre-based youth work is carried out at dedicated premises, which may include facilities such as drop-in coffee bars, sports facilities and advice centres.

Detached youth work is a form of street-based youth work provision, which operates without the use of a centre and takes place where young people usually spend their free time. Detached work is used as a method of delivering informal and social education.

Outreach youth work is a form of youth work that takes place on young people’s own territory and is a method of work that supports new and existing centres and projects. It is normally used to inform young people of services that exist in their locality and to encourage them to use such services. Outreach work takes place when workers from youth centres go onto the streets to encourage young people to attend their club.

School-based work is normally carried out in schools and provided directly for the pupils, often by an organization external from the school. It may include lessons, assemblies, after-school clubs, one to one mentoring etc.

In the UK and lots of other countries, the main distinction is usually made between statutory youth workers, those who work for a government, and non-statutory ones, those that work as volunteers. Youth workers in the public sector often start a career in school or youth centre environment, which is relatively safe. With experience, they can be promoted to mentoring and counseling work.

Increasingly, youth workers are employed by social services and the health service. Many workers use their experience to move into related jobs such as careers adviser/personal adviser within community education, outdoor education, social work, advice work or training [17].