Annual Salary
£18,500 to £33,000
Average UK salary in 2022 was £33,200
(source Office for National Statistics)
Swap to Medical or Therapy or go back to all job sectors
Youth workers support young people aged 11 to 25 to help them with their personal, social and educational development.
Average UK salary in 2022 was £33,200
(source Office for National Statistics)
You could work: evenings / weekends; on a rota
There will be
4% more Youth worker jobs in 2027.
As a youth worker, you could:
You could work in the community, at an outreach centre, at a college, in an office or at a school.
Your working environment may be physically and emotionally demanding and outdoors some of the time.
You can get into this job through:
You can do a professional youth work qualification, which is a degree recognised by the National Youth Agency. Degree courses include:
Postgraduate courses
You can do a postgraduate qualification to give you professional youth worker status if you have a degree in another subject and relevant experience.
You'll usually need:
You’ll need a minimum of a level 2 qualification to work with young people aged 11 and over. Qualifications include:
You could apply to do an apprenticeship, such as:
You could start as a part-time youth support worker and complete training on the job. You could then use this to join a youth work degree course.
Employers value work experience with young people so it's important to get as much as you can. You'll often need at least one year of experience to apply for a job or course in youth work.
You can find voluntary or part-time youth work opportunities through the National Council for Voluntary Organisations or through a local youth service.
You could apply to become a youth worker if you've got experience and qualifications in teaching, careers guidance, probation or community development.
You'll be expected to complete a postgraduate qualification while you're working to give you professional youth worker status.
More information
You can find out more about careers in youth work from the National Youth Agency.
You'll need to:
With experience you could:become a team leader or manager; take on responsibility for a specialist area like mental health; work in youth policy and development of best practice; move into a related career like social worker, community development worker or counsellor
You'll need: