Farewell to all that? The uncertain future of youth and community work education.

This article considers issues in the field of professional community and youth work education. It does so with particular reference to the development of a range of different programmes since the start of the professional endorsement process following the Thompson Report. The analysis is undertaken with regard to transformations in HE since the late 1980s which, it is argued, have been driven by commercial concerns to the detriment of the educational principles and practices which are relevant to all HE programmes, but particularly important to a profession which claims to be educational in its purposes. The analysis of the institutional and policy context within which qualifying courses currently operate suggests that as presently conceived, they are facing an uncertain and insecure future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]