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This week the Welsh Government published their Youth Work Newsletter, on the subject of Democratic Engagement.

Here’s the link to the latest edition.

A number of CWVYS members contributed, and there are some lovely features in there from the statutory youth sector too. Thank you to everyone who sent in content to be featured. It is the second issue that CWVYS supported the Youth Engagement team in gathering content and editing it, going forward if you want to contribute to the next newsletter you can email  youthwork@gov.wales

If you’d like to receive future issues directly, you can subscribe here.

As a response to the Coronavirus crisis and the nationwide lockdown in March 2020 we surveyed our
Members in May 2020 and released a report in June of that year, to assess and report on the impact
of the pandemic on the voluntary youth work sector in Wales.

That report was shared widely and together with our Members we engaged with the Welsh
Government in providing specific Coronavirus guidelines for operating youth services safely in
August 2020. As summer became Autumn and Winter and Wales entered and came out of another
brief lockdown in November 2020, we decided to survey our Membership again, to gauge the mood
and ongoing impact of the pandemic on the voluntary youth sector in Wales.

Here you can find our report, presenting the results of our latest survey, which was open from November 2020 to January 2021. Thank you to everyone who contributed to it.

The Education Workforce Council (EWC) National education workforce survey for Wales is currently open.

The survey will be closing on the 9th of April 2021.

After completing the survey, EWC would be grateful for your support in promoting the survey so that other practitioners have an opportunity to have their say. Here is the link; https://www.ewc.wales/aga-ews/index.php/en/

If you have any queries at all about the survey please do not hesitate to contact the EWC, they thank you in advance for your support.

“Encouraging and supporting young people to become partners in, and share responsibility for, the opportunities, learning processes and decision-making structures which affect their own and other people’s lives and environments” is one of the Principles and Purposes of Youth Work in Wales.

Here, CWVYS members miFuture share an insight into the process that lead to their creation, and the importance of good participation.

Background

miFuture makes the careers process fit for Generation Z, by simplifying the way school leavers and the organisations that want young talent connect. They saw no value in duplicating existing platforms which did not cater to school leavers for whom university is not a priority.

miFuture was co-created with 2500 school leavers in RCT, Caerphilly and Cardiff, here’s a little snapshot of that process and why good participation is key to solving issues successfully, in the words of founder and CEO Gemma Hallet;

The problem: School leavers going to university have UCAS and UniFrog to support seamless transition, those not going to university are pretty much left to it. I wanted to fix that.

The solution: I initially went to young people with a ‘Facebook for careers’ style platform, which would house loads of resources and activities etc. Something a teacher would benefit from, not what excites a digital native school leaver that does everything on their smartphone.

The realisation: I soon realised that even though they were excited that we were solving the problem and resonated with our ‘why’, the solution wasn’t appealing. Just another over engineered approach forced upon them (top down approach).

The pivot: I realised that if I didn’t start over with young people leading the way on what the solution would be, it will never make the impact I’d want it to make. Technology was developing rapidly and we moved quickly from version one an Online Dashboard, to version 2  an online dashboard supported by an app, to our product now which scrapped the whole online presence and launched a native app that is personally curated and has similar functions to dating app models. All driven and functionality now created by school leavers for school leavers.

The future: School leavers feedback and concern for the future sees us now exploring new ground and pushing innovation, in the form of AI powered interview preparation and digital Skill Bursts – nudging young people towards-better skilled higher-paid futures.

The result: A solution co-created with school leavers for school leavers, where our audience was not just represented but were leaders at each stage of our build and growth.

To learn more, visit https://www.mifuture.co.uk/

Eurodesk’s mission is to help young people experience the world.

Engaging and inspiring young people – and those who work with them in the youth sector – is key to this.

As you know, CWVYS have been partners of Eurodesk UK for a number of years, sharing and promoting positive stories from young people here in Wales and their peers all across Europe.

If you enjoy these kinds of news stories, Eurodesk UK recently released their new publication ‘Eurodesk: a snapshot in 30 stories’.

The range of experiences covers six topic areas:

• Have your say
• Study
• Travel
• Volunteer
• Work
• Youth work

From volunteering placements to studying for a semester abroad, everyone has a unique experience and a story to tell, not only on what they did but how it affected them personally.
You can enjoy them here: https://www.eurodesk.org.uk/resource/eurodesk-snapshot-30-stories

CWVYS will be hosting an online hustings event on Thursday 28 January 2021 between 6.00pm – 8.00pm.

In advance of the Senedd elections in May 2021, CWVYS will be hosting an online hustings event for its Member organisations to put questions to representatives of political parties in Wales.

Details of those representatives will be announced shortly.

However, we are delighted to confirm that Keith Towler, Chair of the Interim Youth Work Board for Wales, will be our guest speaker.

Keith will provide an important update on the work of the Interim Youth Work Board as well as the context upon which the hustings will be based: the CWVYS Manifesto; a rights-based approach to youth work in Wales; and what young people want to see happen for them.

We will be inviting questions from CWVYS Member organisations and asking them of our guests at the event. Look out for your opportunity to submit questions to CWVYS in due course.

For a look at our manifesto visit: https://www.cwvys.org.uk/cwvys-manifesto/

CWVYS are supporting the Welsh Government to collect articles and news for the Youth Work newsletter.

We encourage you to send us your stories and articles for the next issue, which is due out in January, and the subject is Participation.

Next year’s elections sees the participation of 16-17 year olds for the first time – maybe in the newsletter you could include a story on your ideas or work to discuss this topic with the young people you engage with.

Here (alongside the WG and Electoral Commission’s resources) you can find info from the Senedd, which includes a session plan and resources for youth group leaders are all available on HWB (You don’t need a HWB account to download them).

In the recent CWVYS newsletter we shared the WG’s  ‘style guide’ for an idea of what the Youth Engagement team at the Welsh Government expect.

You can find previous issues here: https://gov.wales/youth-work-newsletters

To subscribe follow this link: https://gov.wales/subscribe-youth-work-newsletter

The team are hoping to have content gathered for the next issue by the 11^th of December please, send it to helen@cwvys.org.uk.

We are looking forward to your submissions!

You may recall we conducted a survey earlier in the year on the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on the voluntary youth sector in Wales.

The report on its findings was widely circulated amongst our members, here’s the link for some more info: https://www.cwvys.org.uk/cwvys-report-on-the-impact-of-covid-19/ 

We are now conducting a follow-up survey to assess the ongoing impact of the pandemic and would greatly appreciate if you could take the time to complete it.

We appreciate things are highly uncertain, but looking to the future, it would be positive for our members for us to be able to highlight their experience of the situation, particularly as it continues to change.

You will each receive a copy of the report when it’s completed next month.

Please could you fill it in as soon as you get a chance. Here is the link to the English version: https://forms.gle/pQFdSDacSFPYBBYu5

For respondents we will put each name into a hat for the chance to win a £50 voucher – we will announce the winner in December’s regional meeting 😊

Thank you to those who have already responded.

The Interim Youth Work Board are setting up a Young Persons Committee, could you support them?

To co-ordinate a young person’s committee to work to and feed back to the Interim Youth Work Board to specifically consider what a young person’s rights led approach to a new youth work model would look like going forward. This work is available to a single organisation or to a partnership of organisations (with a lead partner identified for receipt of funds).  You can find more information in the specification documents here:

If you have any queries or wish to apply for this work please submit your bid to the youthworkboard@gov.wales mailbox no later than noon on the 10th of December 2020.

Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) Youth Support Worker qualifications at Levels 2 & 3 and how they fit with JNC Professional Youth Worker qualifications in Wales 

The new suite of youth work qualifications at Level 2 and Level 3, first developed in 2015, have been updated and are available from 1 April 2020.

As before, those at Certificate level provide JNC Youth Support Worker and JNC Assistant Youth Support Worker recognition to those who complete them.
This paper covers all JNC youth work qualifications with particular focus on the qualifications for Youth Support Workers.  

https://etswales.org.uk/home.php?page_id=8756&setLanguage=1