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- Work to help young people who are at risk of offending or reoffending
- You'll need good people skills to build trust and cope with challenging behaviour
- Progress to lead a team of officers or move into social work or educational welfare
This is challenging but rewarding work with high risk and often vulnerable young people.
DAY-TO-DAY DUTIES
- Coming up with action plans to support young offenders and prevent them from reoffending
- Referring young offenders to agencies to support their welfare needs, like housing, or drug and alcohol misuse services
- Supervising young offenders on court orders and community sentences, and after their release from secure institutions
- Helping young offenders into education, work or training
- Encouraging them to take part in constructive activities
- Visiting young people in secure institutions
DAY-TO-DAY ENVIRONMENT
You'll normally be based at an office but might also work at places like police stations, courts, prisons, detention centres, youth clubs and clients' homes.
You'll need
You'll need patience, empathy and a non-judgmental attitude, excellent communication and people skills, the ability to stay calm under pressure and handle challenging behaviour, good report-writing skills, and the ability to manage your time effectively and prioritise tasks.
There are no set entry requirements in terms of qualifications, but many officers have a degree in a subject like youth work, youth justice, social work or criminology.
Many also have experience in related fields like: social work, youth work, probation, or the police service.
Experience of paid or voluntary work with young people, like mentoring, could help you get a job in this area.
It will also help to have an understanding of how the justice system works.
You'll need clearance from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) - your employer will normally arrange this.
CAREER PROSPECTS
With experience, you could progress to team leader or team manager, and with further training you could move into social work or educational welfare.