How To Become A Youth Services Specialist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a youth services specialist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted experts

Christina Erickson Ph.D.,

Dr. T. Thao Pham Ph.D.

A youth services specialist is a child, family, and school social worker. In this position, you'll be responsible for the welfare of children and young people.

Youth specialists are typically employed by child and young people residential institutions. A youth services specialist should possess skills such as communication, interpersonal, decision making, attention to detail, and networking skills. A Bachelor's Degree in social work or a similar area is required to be eligible for a youth services specialist position.

As a youth services specialist, you provide social services and assistance to children and their families to improve their social and psychological welfare. You'll also provide, find, or arrange for support services like child care, homemaker service, substance abuse treatment, counseling, or parenting classes to prevent detrimental problems from happening.

Additionally, you serve as the link between students, homes, schools, child guidance clinics, doctors, and other contacts to help children with problems including disabilities, abuse, or poverty.

What general advice would you give to a youth services specialist?

Christina Erickson Ph.D.

Professor and Director of the Bachelor of Social Work Program, Augsburg University

First, don't be afraid of informational interviews. You'll find social workers in many parts of society, and many of them will love to talk about their experiences. Draft up a few questions, three will suffice, and interview someone to see if the kind of work they do interests you.

Second, peruse the website of the National Association of Social Workers. As the professional organization for social workers, they house enormous amounts of information about careers, education, requirements for continuing education, and give you a sense of the direction social work is headed as a profession. Find out if you are comfortable with their information and how they discuss the profession and the future they suggest.

Finally, social work is a licensed profession, like teaching, nursing, law or medicine. Make sure you want to enter a profession in which you are required to be licensed by passing a test, follow a code of ethics, and commit to continuing education to maintain your license over many years. In most states there is a governing body that manages licensing. Look up the name of your state, the word license, and social work to learn more about what that would entail where you hope to work.

ScoreYouth Services SpecialistUS Average

Salary

3.0

Avg. Salary $38,160

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.9

Growth rate 12%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

10.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.70%

Asian 6.08%

Black or African American 9.92%

Hispanic or Latino 20.12%

Unknown 4.74%

White 57.44%

Gender

female 56.68%

male 43.32%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress level

8.9

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.1

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.2

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a youth services specialist

Explore youth services specialist education requirements

Most common youth services specialist degrees

Bachelor's

65.8 %

Associate

14.9 %

Master's

10.2 %

Start to develop specific youth services specialist skills

Skills	Percentages
Social Work	12.10%
Role Model	11.77%
Mental Health	11.02%
Crisis Intervention	8.04%
Incident Reports	7.66%

Complete relevant youth services specialist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New youth services specialists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a youth services specialist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real youth services specialist resumes.

Research youth services specialist duties and responsibilities

Assist in achieving and maintaining DoD certification and national accreditation or equivalent compliance.
Provide everyday living activity for autistic individuals, pass medicine, dress patients, help with communication, and restrain patients.
Retain proper certifications for cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, first aid, driver's license and insurance.

Prepare your youth services specialist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your youth services specialist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a youth services specialist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable youth services specialist resume templates

Build a professional youth services specialist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your youth services specialist resume.