A NEW youth worker in St Ouen will be paid £44,000.
It is over two and a half times the starting salary of a youth worker in the UK, who can expect to earn £16,000.
At a parish assembly on Wednesday, parishioners agreed to find the funds for a full-time youth worker, who will organise activities and run a youth club.
The cost will be half met by the parish and half from the Education, Sport and Culture department.
Now that the parish has allocated the funding, it is up to the Youth Service to appoint in individual to the post.
Speaking about the cost, the Constable, Ken Vibert, said: ‘I appreciate that it is a lot of money, but that is the going rate for a qualified youth worker.
It’s certainly not cheap, but it is not a nine to five job, as they will have to work unsociable hours like evenings and weekends, and in this day and age you only get what you pay for.
‘We are splitting the cost 50/50 with Education, Sport and Culture and we did consider sharing a worker with another parish but I have spoken with the Constable of St Peter, Tom du Feu, and we estimate there are the same number of youths in both parishes and he explained the need for a full-time youth worker.
Therefore we felt the need for the parish to push on with this idea.’
Article posted on 2nd July, 2004 - 12.00am
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