Youth work is carried out as part of the child and youth services system in Germany. Child and youth services generally cover all education and care services for children, young people and their families outside of school. In addition to youth work, child and youth services provide things like childcare facilities (education and care of children aged 0–6 years and of schoolchildren); socio-educational support services (Hilfen zur Erziehung) such as residential care or foster families; youth social work; youth assistance in the justice system; and child and youth protection services. The socio-educational support services in particular focus on problems faced by children and young people, such as difficulties in upbringing, domestic abuse and neglect, providing specific support for parents to help them (better) meet their parental responsibilities again. Youth social work aims to offer socio-educational assistance to young people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds to redress the balance or help them overcome individual barriers. Such assistance can include school social work, support with vocational training, workplace integration and more. Youth work in Germany forms an independent field of activity that is distinct from the socio-educational support services, youth social work and other areas of child and youth services.

Youth work covers a broad spectrum of services and recreational activities for young people. It is for all children and young people irrespective of their age, background, education, sex and – in particular – any problems they may have or which are attributed to them. Youth work services are oriented to the interests of children and young people and do not primarily take place in spaces structured by adults. They offer room and opportunities for youth-led activities and processes of self-learning in educational contexts. Youth work is also a place that represents the interests of children and young people, for example by representing youth associations or the alliances to which they belong in (local) political structures. As is the case with all services provided under Social Code Book VIII (SGB VIII), youth work is oriented to young people up to the age of 27. Youth work services are mainly used by young people between the ages of 10 and 17. Some services, such as play buses (Spielmobile), are offered specifically to children. Young people over the age of 27 also make use of youth work services.

Youth work in Germany comprises two main areas: youth associations (verbandliche Jugendarbeit) and open youth work (offene Jugendarbeit).

Youth associations can be organised in extremely diverse ways and are classed as such primarily on the basis of their similar historical roots, their members' (close or loose) ties to the association, and their orientation to specific values. Youth associations can be, for example, denominational, assisting (e.g. the German life-saving association (Deutsche Lebensrettungsgesellschaft, DLRG)), cultural (e.g. rifle clubs), ecological, professional, trade union-based, or party-affiliated. Youth associations are often the youth chapters of their adult counterparts, e.g. the youth fire brigades, Protestant or Catholic youth associations, or the youth arm of the German civil service federation (Beamtenbund, dbb). Whilst many have a long history, other new youth associations are still being established today – such as youth-led migrant organisations (Migrantenjugendselbstorganisationen). The youth association groups (Jugendverbandsgruppen) at local authority level form the heart of most youth associations. These individual groups are often affiliated at the next organisational level up, whilst some are incorporated into the structures of an adult association. No data is available on exactly how many local youth association groups exist.

Open youth work refers mainly to an approach that focusses on youth clubs with open-door services as well as adventure playgrounds and play buses. The overriding purpose of open-door youth work is to provide activities that are open to all young people, irrespective of their social background or ideological convictions. The youth work services are free of charge (with a handful of exceptions) and not tied to any conditions (e.g. membership). Open youth work activities aim to offer young people opportunities to pursue their interests and needs and gain self-directed experiences in an environment that is not dominated by adults. These are typically youth clubs attended by children and young people in the afternoons and evenings who can spend their free time as they wish, for example meeting friends, relaxing, playing games or sport, engaging in creative or artistic activities, or asking for help with everyday issues. Young people cannot be forced to make use of specific youth clubs. Around 15 000 such youth work facilities and youth clubs exist across Germany at present. Statistically, this means that there are 129 facilities for every approximately 100 000 young people aged 6–21. Youth work professionals work in around half of these. The other facilities are youth-led meeting places, often in rural areas, that offer young people a place to spend their free time together in an environment that is not structured by adults.

Nowadays, the boundaries between these two areas (youth association work and open youth work) are often blurred. For example, some youth associations also offer meeting spaces which are open to all children and young people, including non-members. Both youth associations and youth clubs organise initiatives during school holidays (e.g. holiday and adventure travels or holiday recreation camps), to give another example.

Child and youth services, and therefore also youth work, are subject to local self-government. The federal (Bund) and state (Länder) governments (see 10.3) only lay down general legal provisions regarding the need for child and youth services and the general goals these services must pursue. The majority of youth work is organised and financed at local level. This results in a (sometimes confusing) array of organisational forms, services and structures – for example, which organisations are active where, how diverse the services are, or which services exist with what conceptual focus. Regular efforts are necessary at local and supra-local level to establish consensus on what constitutes the core of youth work, not least because this field covers such a wide range of subjects. Conferences and quality debates are held and diverse information leaflets and magazines published in pursuit of this goal.

Both associational and open youth work activities in Germany are dependent on a large number of voluntary and paid workers. Different qualification requirements apply to these two groups.

Article 72 of Social Code Book VIII (SGB VIII) lays down (at a national level) the basic qualification requirements applicable to paid workers involved in child and youth services. The same applies to youth work professionals. At the same time, the federal legislature has refrained from including requirements that are too narrow and specific, so as not to undermine staffing autonomy as a component of local self-government. It would also be beyond the legislature's scope to define requirements profiles for every one of the numerous tasks in a single law. Rather, it is left to the expert discretion of the individual disciplines to define professional standards. The law prescribes two basic criteria: personal suitability and specialist training. Since the criterion of personal suitability is not refined further, this leaves substantial room for interpretation. It refers in general to the characteristics required by the social professions, e.g. credibility, empathy, resilience, responsibility and openness/awareness. Although the second criterion – specialist training – does not refer to a specific training path, it does require youth work professionals to have been trained in the skills they need to perform the assigned tasks in their area of work. Individuals who meet both criteria are referred to as youth work professionals. In addition to youth work professionals, paid workers may also include persons with a strong background in social work provided they are able to perform the relevant tasks. As a rule, most paid workers are youth work professionals. Irrespective of these national guidelines, the statutory authorities at a local authority level can define more specific or more extensive requirements that apply to paid workers involved in youth work in funding and/or quality agreements with the service providers.

At national level, SGB VIII includes a further requirement applicable to paid workers employed in youth work. Article 72a SGB VIII describes circumstances under which individuals already working in youth work or who plan to work in youth work can be excluded from the field. It says that persons convicted of specific offences (in particular sex offences) are not allowed to engage in youth work. Youth work organisations must therefore regularly ensure that there are no grounds for exclusion from work by obtaining Criminal Records Bureau checks for paid workers.

Article 72a SGB VIII also requires youth work volunteers to submit a Criminal Records Bureau check at regular intervals where the type, duration and intensity of their contact with children and young people can expose the latter two groups to an increased risk of assault. No further criteria are applied at national level to volunteer activities in youth work.

This distinction between youth work professionals and volunteers is fundamental to the basic understanding of youth work activities in Germany. It is expressed in the principle "by and for young people". Especially in associational youth work, paid workers are there to support volunteers and the children and young people taking part. Almost all members of the executive boards of the youth associations (Jugendverbände) are volunteers. They decide on the activities and orientation of the youth associations. In open youth work facilities, paid workers put the agendas of children and young people at the centre of their actions. In this context, their function is to open up opportunities for volunteers and visitors alike to participate in education and development processes.

The number of volunteers active in open youth work and associational youth work is significantly higher than the number of paid workers. The share of youth associations without paid workers is higher than the share of open youth work facilities and services without paid workers.

Volunteers in particular can choose to train up as certified youth leaders. "JULEICA" has become the standard term across Germany designating certified youth leaders. However, since the JULEICA rules are not codified in national law, the individual federal states apply their own application criteria and processes for becoming JULEICA-certified. In most cases, trainees must undergo at least 30 hours of training. Applicants must also usually provide evidence of first aid skills in order to obtain the JULEICA youth leader card. 152 000 JULEICA applications were submitted in 2018. JULEICA cardholders can be employed as paid or voluntary youth workers.

Beyond JULEICA, no further certification of youth work training exists nationwide. Some local programmes recognise volunteer activities in the field of youth work.

The significance of youth work as an opportunity structure for non-formal and informal learning by children and young people is widely acknowledged in Germany. This is regularly emphasised in the child and youth reports prepared for the Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany (e.g. 15th child and youth report 2017), the national educational reports (e.g. by bodies such as the Authoring Group Educational Reporting 2018: Autorengruppe Bildungsberichterstattung 2018), and in other publications.

Despite this, the effects – and, above all, the potential negative consequences – of officially recognising skills acquired through non-formal and informal learning in youth work are the subject of debate in Germany. The following aspects are seen as having potential negative consequences: Firstly, for skills learnt and acquired in youth work to be visible, they must also be measurable. The result is that skills that cannot or only partially be measured cannot be recognised. A formal recognition of the skills learnt and acquired focusses primarily on potential applications (e.g. employability) that do not necessarily correspond to the independent education mandate of youth work in Germany. This "instrumentalised" way of looking at skills recognition goes against the ideal upheld as central to youth work in Germany, i.e. that learnable or acquirable content in youth work is self-determined – and thus by its nature not predetermined.

There are various forms of recognising the skills acquired in youth work (see Baumbast et al. 2014). The most commonly used are attendance certificates from programmes, courses and exchange formats. Certificates of participation document the tasks completed and may also include a description of the skills learnt. Some are filled in by the participants themselves, while others are filled in by the host or organising organisations. The JULEICA youth leader card is one example of the latter. Whilst it is used Germany-wide, the criteria for acquiring the JULEICA card are not uniform across all federal states. However, the JULEICA card is somewhat different to other certificates of participation in that, in order to acquire a card, the applicant must meet certain qualifying criteria (e.g. attendance of a course). JULEICA cardholders thus document their compliance with the minimum criteria required in order to obtain a card, as well as youth leadership activities that result in the acquisition of further skills. Evidence of competence – using various methods (e.g. dialogue-based observations, self-reflection on skills learnt/acquired, tests and assessments) – serves to catalogue the skills learnt/acquired specifically in youth work. The Certificate of Competence International (Kompetenznachweis International, KNI) raises the profile of the skills acquired in international youth exchanges and the engagement of young people abroad (cf. IJAB).

With the exception of the JULEICA card, the various forms of skills recognition do not exist uniformly across Germany. A broad spectrum of systems for recognising volunteer work exist at local level.

Continuing professional development (CPD) offers one way for volunteers to develop their skills in specific areas. Around half of the 16 federal states in Germany have introduced state-level grants for CPD (own research). At local level, the availability of these development opportunities is heavily dependent on the priorities of local policy-makers and organisations.

Releasing employees from their duties in order to volunteer in youth work is one form of social recognition of their engagement. No guidelines exist at national level regarding release from duties for employees to pursue their commitment to youth work. However, since youth work is considered to be particularly important and deserving of support, (various different) rules on release from duties have been adopted in the individual states. Apart from a handful of exceptions, release from duties is unpaid. In most cases, employees can request to be released from duties for a maximum of 12 workdays in order to pursue youth work commitments (cf. JULEICA).

To qualify for state subsidies to finance youth work, the applying organisations must themselves contribute a reasonable share of the financing. This can also be rendered in the form of volunteer work. This, too, is an expression of society's appreciation for engagement in youth work.

(From the Youth Wiki)