Are you looking for a job that pays well and is rewarding at the same time? If yes, you’ve come to the right place!
The need to be financially independent has forced many of us into working just to earn. Except, why settle for only a monthly salary when you can have more?
While it’s not one of the highest paying jobs this year, becoming a youth worker has many benefits to offer, both to you and the world. Let us look at 8 reasons to consider becoming one.
1. You’ll learn transferable skills
Youth work will provide you with skills that are considered important and useful in many other professions. For one, since it is a profession based on team effort, companies will prefer you for your teamwork skills over others. They might even consider you for roles that require good leadership skills.
Then, youth work takes place with children and teenagers from various backgrounds, and you get to work with different personalities. This helps enhance your interpersonal skills, which gives you the ability to communicate well with a wide range of people. You learn to respect other opinions and negotiate with people. These are vital skills companies look for in their employees.
Last but not the least, youth work helps you develop a positive attitude and gives you an optimistic outlook on things. People who have a negative mental attitude struggle with overcoming obstacles. In other words, optimism is a bonus for any company that is looking to be successful, making people with youth work experience ideal employees.
If you’re looking to kick off your career as a youth worker, TSA’s diploma of youth work might be a good place to start.
2. It’s rewarding!
The youth is the most emotionally vulnerable population in a society. By working with them and giving them the support that they need, you will be playing an active role in the betterment of society. Through your support and guidance, they will be able to lead healthy and successful lives. Doesn’t that sound gratifying?
Since many children will be from broken and unstable homes, you will help them restore their damaged relationships and form healthy bonds in the future. You might also help someone be a good leader in the future, or a kind human.
In conclusion, you’ll leave the world a better place than when you came into it!
3. It will help you enhance your inner strength
Growing up is hard, and the pain it brings with it is manifested in ugly ways. Children dealing with too many emotions and teenagers bursting with hormones are certainly a handful. You might have to deal with children coming from unstable homes and give them support and guidance. And dealing with them will require strength and resilience.
This means youth work provides you with the opportunity to develop your resilience and tolerance. In stressful situations, it allows you to take a step backward and think with a rational mind, and teaches you to act with integrity in times of stress.
4. It enhances your innovation skills
Other than providing guidance and support, a youth worker must help the youth with their problems. Problem solving requires critical thinking skills and the ability to make good decisions according to the situation. While working with various young people facing complex challenges and difficulties, you will be improving your problem-solving and critical thinking skills.
You will also be learning flexibility, which will give you the ability to challenge yourself and help others. It will teach you ways to use your knowledge in the various scenarios you might face in life.
5. You’ll become a better parent
Are you a parent? Or are you planning to be? If your answers to both these questions were positive, youth work is perfect for you!
Working in an environment that puts emphasis on supporting young people and providing them with the right guidance will teach you to be more empathetic. You will be able to identify the challenges that come with raising a child, while also learning how to face a child in a healthy manner that does not hurt them.
Often, parents disregard the opinions of their children and do not give them the importance they deserve. By getting involved in youth work, you will learn healthy parenting and become more respectful of your child’s opinions, concerns, and demands. At the end of the day, you will treat your children with respect, tact, and sensitivity.
6. It can be fun!
Youth workers organise events and activities that may contribute positively to the development and happiness of young people. In these activities, you can use your own hobbies or talents to entertain them! Be it singing, painting, dancing, any other hobby or any child-friendly activities, you will get to use it in a way that is pleasing to both you and others.
Instead of dreading workdays, you might find yourself looking forward to enjoying them!
7. You’ll get to travel
If you love to travel and meet new people, youth work will give you the opportunity to do just that! You can work with youth from different cultures and backgrounds, which will help you learn more about them. Exchange programs also provide the opportunity to travel to different parts of the world and learn about their customs, traditions, and way of life.
8. It will help you understand yourself better
Finally, in order to work with young people, you must first understand yourself. This is because in order to help others, you must be comfortable with who you are. In youth work, you will have to identify your strengths and weaknesses in order to better understand the young people you are working with.
You will also get to know yourself on a deeper level, which will help you accept yourself for who you are. This is an important quality to have, as it will make you a better youth worker and a better person overall.