The Youth Service is celebrating the achievement of 2 of its employees who have recently qualified with a Post Graduate diploma, JNC-endorsed in Youth & Community work.

The Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) for youth and community workers is the body that sets the national framework used to grade and pay youth work jobs.

The full-time youth work team is now composed of eight JNC qualified Youth & Community workers who are ready to deal with a variety of issues affecting young people.

2014 was a pivotal year in the Youth Services development - the department grew in size and gained four full time youth and community workers. The Service has always felt that young people deserve to be supported by highly trained, skilled workers and as a result these new employees were required to be JNC Qualified, a qualification which is validated by the National Youth Agency.

Two of the newly appointed workers were JNC-qualified, the other two were enrolled in the Open University and have successfully completed a post-graduate Youth and Community Work JNC- endorsed qualification in December 2016. Gaining qualifications, specifically in youth work, enables workers to explore the theory behind youth work, its ethos, principles and practice.