We at the National Youth Agency are saddened to hear of the closure of YMCA George Williams College, which signals the end of a long-standing relationship with youth work education.
Leigh Middleton, OBE, CEO, said: “We’ve worked incredibly closely with George Williams College for a very long time and their closure is a loss to the sector. As a research organisation the College, which merged with the Centre for Youth Impact in 2022, shared our belief in young people’s right to have access to high-quality spaces and opportunities to learn, grow, and explore their relationships with the world around them. ”
Their work to extend best practice, included training and research as well as promoting youth voice and supporting youth organisations to embed new theories of change and understand how to undertake meaningful evaluation providing learning for the whole sector.
Over the years, we have worked with the College to celebrate and share the importance of understanding the impact of youth services to improve outcomes and the lives of young people. The NYA previously endorsed the College’s higher education programmes through our Education and Training Standards Committee validation process. The College was a pioneer of higher education training of youth work.
As the NYA continues its work supporting the sector to evolve and grow to meet the needs of young people, as well collaborating with others to build the body of knowledge around the impact of youth work, the contribution of the YMCA George Wiliams College will be sorely missed.
This closure reflects the challenges that many youth organisations continue to face in the wake of over a decade of austerity cuts, which has resulted in an exodus of youth workers from the profession and loss of status around the policy making table. Whilst the promise of a National Youth Strategy reflects a positive move by the government, ensuring there is a commitment to investment in skills and creating the right infrastructures of support to enable the sector to grow and evolve cannot be understated if we are to meet the burgeoning needs of young people.
The NYA extends its support to all those affected by this closure and continues to advocate for the youth sector and youth voice to be valued and championed in decision making arenas.”
– Leigh Middleton OBE,
Chief Executive Officer, NYA
