Previously on 'what is the JNC?' we found out that the JNC was an organisation not too dissimilar to a secret cabal of spies at war with each other. Or something like that. Also, we found out they recognised people that were qualified to deliver youth work. Today, we talk about that.
First things first, if you've been told that your currently qualifying to JNC level 2.0 then, well, you're not. Like the unicorn, it doesn't exist. It may have existed once, but it doesn't any more and all jobs and qualifications are inline with a new scale framework type thing. So bear that in mind.
The framework for qualifications is this. There are support workers, and there are professional workers. If you have gone to university to study youth work and returned with a certificate qualifying you as a youth worker, you are almost certainly qualified as a professional worker. (My certificate reads "...has successfully passed the basic and advanced modules required to qualify as a professional Youth & Community worker. This qualification has been validated by the National Youth Agency... - JNC Recgonized [sic].")1 Below the range of professional worker is the range of support worker, and this range divides into two other levels. Level one is for those who start unqualified and are under fairly tight direction, the expectation of the JNC is that those in this level will be put on a basic training course as soon as possible with the aim of getting them to do a NVQ/VRQ level 2 type qualification in youth work. Level two is for staff who have some more serious responsibility in a youth centre, but are still supervised by a professional youth worker. The minimum qualification should be a NVQ/VRQ Level 3 in youth work.
Those are the qualifications that exist. At the moment the JNC (through the NYA) recognises which courses can say they qualify people to a professional level and is working on approving courses that qualify in the support worker range.
The last thing to note is that what you level you are qualified to doesn't make a difference to what you're paid for a job. Pay rates for youth work jobs are tied to what responsibilities the job entails. The more responsibility and oversight the higher the pay scale the job will start on. If the job requires a certain amount of responsibility they may require you to be professionally qualified but just because you're professionally qualified doesn't mean you'll be paid more for a job. It just means you can get jobs with more responsibility.
1 This is why you can't get qualified higher than a degree level course, because basically understood, either you're qualified or your not. Either you can do the job or you can't. If you've got a degree in youth work2 that might count towards more in job applications, but you're just as professionally qualified to do youth work as the person who did his professional qualification in one year.
2 If you got your qualification and degree through the Centre for Youth Ministry, the professional JNC validated qualification part of it isn't anything to do with Oxford Brookes. As far as I'm aware Oxford Brookes have nothing to do with the JNC qualification, they just care about the degree.
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