Community spirit and face-to-face meetings

Youth work at school is preventive work done with groups. Youth work helps improve pupils’ group working capabilities and increase responsible interactions between young people. The objective is a safe school community that helps young people feel comfortable, learn and get along well with each other.

The school youth worker meets pupils informally, without an appointment. If necessary, the school youth worker will help pupils find hobbies or contact other professionals or services.

Inclusion and comfort at school

School youth work helps increase comfort at school in many ways. The school youth worker will provide young people with positive experiences of inclusion and influencing, for example in cooperation with teachers managing the student committee and prefect operations. The school youth worker will inspire students to arrange inclusive break time activities. The operations promote activity as well as interactions and shared activities, and their goal is to strengthen the school’s community spirit.

Multidisciplinary cooperation and new work methods

The school youth worker will participate in the development and testing of new work methods. For example, there have been good experiences with teamwork between the school youth worker and the school welfare officer or the school youth worker and a schoolteacher with small groups and in implementation of multidisciplinary study units.

Method competence

Method competence is one of the school youth worker’s strengths in a school.  In addition to aspects such as group working, cooperation during transitional stages and classroom work, as well as break time, student committee, camp, excursion and small group activities, youth work supports teaching by promoting the social capabilities of young people and through thematic events that support day-to-day skills. The themes of these events can be e.g. parity, media education, money spending, sexual health and sustainable development. The themes can also be linked to a parents’ evening, in which the students also participate.