How Nigeria can professionalize youth work- Olaopa
The Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), Prof. Tunji Olaopa, has given insight into how to professionalize youth work.
Delivered a keynote address on the topic “Professionalisation of Youth Work Practice in Nigeria” on Tuesday at the Federal Ministry of Youth Development/University of Abuja Collaborative Workshop at the University of Abuja Main Camp, Olaopa said youth work is a cogent dimension of youth social work that extends in historical perspectives.
He said the diversity youth work embodies comes directly from the multiplicity of contexts, conditions, regional and circumstances that shape the phenomenon across the world.
Olaopa said ” The condition of youth work is extremely different. It is far from being a professional endeavour, and this is where the decision to professionalize it is both a significant paradigm shift in Nigeria and a daunting task for the Federal Ministry of Youth Development”, he said.
He stated that government development agenda, as first order of business, needs to prioritise workforce development and upgrade to improve the status of youth work so as to make it more attractive profession to enter and stay in .
The FCSC Chairman stated that youth work education needs to be taken seriously in ways that lead intentionally to the design and accreditation of youth work curriculum and courses.
Olaopa noted that prioritizing youth work education also provides an avenue for training the government’s workforce dedicated to youth work.
He stressed that the establishment and accreditation of youth work education and the training of a government workforce for youth work would “automatically see to the emergence and consolidation of the youth work professional practice.
