As a profession, we understand the critical role that informal education plays in the development and growth of young people. In particular during holiday activities, the impact of engaging and retaining informal education should not be under estimated.
In this article, i will consider strategies, raise some of the potential challenges on how to effectively incorporate informal education in holiday activities for young people, highlighting the significances and the positive outcomes from this type of youth work.
Why Retaining Informal Education Matters
Informal education, in contrast to traditional classroom learning, offers young people opportunities to explore, experiment, and learn through hands-on experiences. During holiday activities, incorporating elements of informal education not only keeps young people engaged but also fosters an aspiration for learning beyond structured environments. Ensuring that informal education in holiday programmes is profile to the planning and delivery, helps in developing essential life skills, enhances social skills, fosters creativity and embraces individuality, whilst promoting social interactions among young people that take part. Informal education works when the plan is taken in a particular direction by young people and their experiences are live, a space where effective youth workers act on their feet.
Importance of Experiential Learning
Experiential learning, one of the core components of informal education, allows young people to learn by doing. Whether through interactive activities, outdoor activities, or creative projects, holiday programs can create a dynamic learning environment that stimulates curiosity and critical thinking. By retaining informal education in these activities, professionals in youth work can cater to diverse learning styles and enhance the overall educational experience for participants.
Building Resilience and Confidence
Holiday activities that incorporate informal education provide young people with opportunities to step out of their comfort zones, take on challenges, and overcome obstacles. These experiences not only build resilience but also boost self-confidence and self-esteem. By encouraging continuous learning in a fun and supportive setting, youth work professionals can work towards empowering young people to embrace new opportunities and grow both academically and personally.
Strategies for Retaining Informal Education in Holiday Activities
Interactive Activities : Organise hands-on activities (the doing) focusing on various subjects or core skills, such as arts and crafts, coding, or sustainability. These activities encourage active participation and collaborative learning among young participants. Ensure that evaluative outcomes focus on how participation and collaboration feature and then the soft skills that occur.
Off Site Trips and Visits : Plan off site trips to museums, parks, or cultural sites to provide real-world learning experiences at relatively low cost and retain an accessibility for young people. Imaginative tours and interactive activities, young people can gain practical and to an extent historical knowledge in an engaging way with youth workers creating the space for dialogue regarding the experiences.
Themed Projects : Introduce themed projects that require creativity, problem-solving, and teamwork. By working on projects related to current events, environmental issues, or global challenges, participants can apply their knowledge in a relevant context.
Community Engagement : Involve young people in community projects or volunteering opportunities during holiday activities. These experiences develop a sense of social responsibility and empathy while promoting active citizenship.
Potential Challenges
Youth work for some time has been placed to provide meals in provision based upon scales of deprivation and this speaks volumes regarding the sources of funding and therefore a potential access issue. A focus on care in balance with education is a relatively new feature that is an external determination for funding to support families.
Reducing barriers to engagement either due to financial constraints and the necessity for forms can be an issue in planning and running activities through the holidays. There are examples where the youth centre or provision is open for much longer periods both daytime and evenings that use the funding available to be there when young people are available in the space (youth centre) where young people are both familiar and can easily access.
The importance of understanding activities for activities sake; often holiday provision whilst involving young people in the planning process are 'open to all' and this can create issues with aims and outcome planning and meeting specific and present needs of young people - there is a distance between the needs of an existing group of young people and new groups attending. Consider how this will be managed both in planning and practice stages.
An ongoing issue in holiday activities is the community view of a babysitting service and so important advertising to ensure that each activity remains relevant to those that attend based upon their interest and aspirations are key to success.
Important Features
Incorporating informal education in holiday activities for young people is not just about keeping young people occupied; it is about providing enriching experiences that contribute to the educational and holistic development. As professionals in youth work, it is our responsibility to create inclusive and engaging programme activities that nurture a love for learning and personal growth among the young people involved. By retaining informal education in holiday activities, we can inspire young individuals to become lifelong learners and empowered members of society.
The amazing educational activities that youth workers offer during the holidays and equally in a normal term time should be planned with informal education as a central premise with opportunity to utilise more time during the holiday period to plan excellent learning activities that in review offer young people, fun and new activities and events. Learning when having fun, buries the learning in an essentialist way, so have a wonderful Summer; Well Done Everyone!
Do you want to share your Summer Youth Work Story? Get in Touch using the 'Contact Me' button and i will draw from a hat and showcase the brilliant work you are doing!
You can share good practice in The Youth Work Common Room via the button below too, keep in touch and access support from the field.
Steve Walker : The Youth Work Common Room (2024)
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