Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), Prof. Tunji Olaopa, has given insight into how to professionalise youth work.Olaopa delivered a keynote address on the topic: ‘Professionalisation of Youth Work Practice in Nigeria’, yesterday at the Federal Ministry of Youth Development/University of Abuja Collaborative Workshop at the University of Abuja, main campus.

Olaopa, who lauded the Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, and his team for inviting him to deliver the keynote address, said the conversation was meant to set the critical tone for the commencement of the implementation of the policy decision of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to professionalise youth work practice in Nigeria.

He acknowledged that the Federal Ministry of Youth Development was set to provide the lead role in the implementation of the policy.

To Olaopa, youth work is a cogent dimension of youth social work that extends “in historical perspectives, from the Young Men/Women Christian Association (YM/WCA) to the more practical focus of child welfare, youth intervention programmes, juvenile justice systems, therapeutic foster homes, and many more.”

According to Olaopa, professionalism implies an enclosure of a vocation by means of registration of its practitioners, the taking of professional oaths, and systematic and guided monitoring of the quality of professional practice.

This condition of youth work, according to him, is extremely different. It is far from being a professional endeavour, and this is where the decision to professionalise it is both a significant paradigm shift in Nigeria and a daunting task for the Federal Ministry of Youth Development.”

The existing situation of youth work in Nigeria, according to Olaopa, is like that in most places, one that does not require any specific qualifications or professional competence to serve as a youth worker.

In fact, having courses dedicated to youth work already constitutes the basis of a systematic body of knowledge that could become the basis for professionalisation.

Unfortunately, even in the developed countries, say, in Europe, available specialised courses specific to youth work are increasingly faced with the challenges of rationalisation, restructuring or even integration as a subfield of other social science disciplines, like social work”, he added.