I appear to have writers block at the moment I just haven’t thought of anything particually interesting to blog…however truth be told I’ve been pretty busy (and will continue to be)…

Macland – Those regular readers will have read that in the last week I have upgraded to a MacBook, my MacBook is of the rather sexy white, 2.4ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2gb Ram, 2mb cache variety and I’ve spent the last week installing lots of fun applications, sorting out a new backup system for my documents and making a way for them to sync beautifully.

I got a rather nice surprise when I discovered that the USB port on the end of the PS2 connectors for my PC’s wireless keyboard and mouse actually made both the keyboard and mouse a USB  wireless device which works perfectly with my macbook…I’ve also discovered how to output my MacBook onto my monitor alongside mounting an external NTFS formatted drive…all in all a very geeky week.

Band-land – Another part of my week included a band practice with Joel, John and Decca. The four of us have formed what appears to be a band…which is awesome because it’s something I’ve always wanted to do…the scary part is that I’ve entered into vocals and piano (and sometimes guitar in a Matt Belamy-esque kind of way), there’s even some demo’s lurking out there in the web!

Youth Work Question

Perhaps the most exciting development for me this week in bloggerland is a comment from Theresa on my ‘About Me’ page, firstly because it shows I have outside-my-known-readers readers which is always a novelty. Secondly because answering the question made me think. Theresa enquired how she could get into youth work having done children’s work for sometime, alongside how to train in the given area…I replied in the form of a comment on my About Me page, however here is my reply for anyone else interested in youthwork.

Hello Theresa,

Good to hear you’ve been reading my site and I hope it’s been useful, I guess the first thing to do with getting involved in youth work would be to do some volunteering, most training courses like you to have had some experience, it’s also a great benefit to you to have had some before you enter training.

If you’re part of a church offer to help out with one of their clubs, they’re always grateful for new volunteers, if you’re not I’d recommend talking to your local council about opportunities they have for volunteering, most are understaffed and so appreciate volunteers. There will perhaps be a bit of a wait as CRB checks will have to be done, you may also have to fill in a volunteer contract (agreeing to child protection acts etc).

As far as courses go some youth services (state) offer introduction to youth work courses either for free or for a small cost, these are great for understanding the basics. If you wish to take training further there’s a variety of choice, I am currently on the Oasis Youth Work and Ministry course which covers both secular and christian youth work and gives you a BA Hons degree plus a JNC Level 2, places like CYM (Centre for youth ministry) also offer similar courses.

If however you’re not so interested in church youth work or a Christian course I know people who have done youth work degrees both with Anglia Ruskin university (Cambridge) and also Chester university, both of which I’d recommend.

Mark 

Anyway that’s all I’m blogging for now…I’m currently listening to ‘The Hoosiers’ album ‘The Trick To Life’ which I absolutely love…which is odd because I’m not really an indie fan.