Development of Youth Work in Institutions of Higher Education: Academic, Scientific and Applied Aspects

The article reveals the peculiarities of the development of youth work in institutions of higher education.Youth work is a promising field of professional activity with young people, which requires the development of training and employment of youth workers, the level of popularization of youth work in all regions and cities of Ukraine.The development of youth policy, youth work in institutions of higher education has academic and applied aspects and has gone from an educational discipline to scientific and practical developments.Using the example of Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University, the history of the development of youth policy, youth work from academic discipline to scientific and practical developments is covered. In particular, since 2018, the educational and professional program «Social work (Youth work)» has been implemented at the second level of higher education «master» in the specialty «231 Social work».In the context of the development of youth policy as an educational component, later – a separate educational program, there was a vital need to conduct scientific research in this direction. Initially, these were studies on the history of youth work. Subsequently, the historical-pedagogical vector of research was expanded by scientific investigations into the theory and practice of social work, particularly youth work. Scientific research in the field of youth work, youth policy within the educational and scientific program «Social Work» of the third (educational and scientific) level of higher education (specialty 231 «Social Work», educational degree «Doctor of Philosophy») and scientific program deserve special attention «Theoretical and methodological foundations of training future social workers for youth work» (specialty 231 «Social work», scientific level «Doctor of Sciences»).In 2018, the youth center «START» was established at Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University. The purpose of the center's activity is comprehensive development and self-realization of youth in various spheres of social life, disclosure of their potential, protection of interests and rights, promotion of social formation and development, professional orientation and organization of meaningful leisure time, support of talented, gifted youth.The authors, on the basis of the theory and practice of youth work, taking into account the suggestions of stakeholders, determined the prospects for the academic, scientific and applied aspects of the youth policy in the context of the development of social youth policy in Ukraine.