From employment programs to training, job opportunities, and assistance in starting a new business, MTC helps people achieve their ambitions. The main trends in youth work and policy have tended to focus on entertainment, participation, empowerment, and entrepreneurship. During the 1970s and 1980s, traditional voluntary youth organizations generally lost relevance to the current needs of older adolescents, leading the government to take a more active role in youth issues. Australia's youth aims to present a national overview of how young Australians are doing at any given time so that it can be updated regularly and progress can be monitored.
Some youth workers define themselves as informal educators, such as the George Williams YMCA College in London which offers an informal education degree for youth workers. Initiatives such as youth shelters, employment plans, and health programs for young people were created to look after slightly older adolescents aged 15 and over. The INA scholarship recipients developed new and existing summer youth employment (SYE) programs for at-risk American Indian, Alaska Natives and Hawaii Natives youth. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) youth education packages (YEP) are aimed at young people in areas emerging from conflict and aim to facilitate access to work and income-generating activities.
Key national indicators of youth health and well-being (indicators of the National Youth Information Framework) are also used to monitor progress. The paid staff of many Australian youth services have to learn a wider range of skills than the staff of the larger community organizations that are most commonly found in North America. Early child and youth labor in Australia, together with growing state education and social welfare institutions, were often used to keep working-class youth under control and divert their energies to less disruptive activities. There are various initiatives available for young people which are broad in scope or focus on an aspect of the well-being of children and young people (such as child safety). Using data from the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth (LSAY), the report investigates the incidence of persistent ninis in these data, the sociodemographic characteristics associated with being persistently ninis, the activities of the group and the outcomes between the ages of 20 and 24 of those who have a persistent period of ninis between 15 and 19 years of age. Governments, training providers, and community organizations are eager to help young people, especially those who are out of work or “training” (NEET), develop skills and knowledge that will enable them to obtain employment, achieve their full potential, and make positive contributions to their communities. Compared to Australia, the United Kingdom also has much stronger coordinating bodies for youth; both the National Youth Agency and the Community and Youth Workers Union play an important role in accrediting courses and maintaining standards in the training and employment of youth workers.
The main similarities with Australia are found in the political structures and funding arrangements for youth services, as well as in the youth work training available at school and university levels.
