Abstract
M.A.
A number of recent variables have influenced the professionalisation of the child and youth care discipline in South Africa. These variables have had a direct impact on the training of child and youth care practitioners. The first variable is the establishment of the National Qualifications Framework, the National Qualification Authority and the focus on lifelong learning possibilities as well as competency-based training. The second variable is the establishment of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Young People at Risk (IMC) and the accompanying transformation of the South African child and youth care system. The third variable is the transformation of the Interim Council for Social Work with the associated recognition of Child and Youth Care as an independent discipline. The fourth variable is the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child by South Africa in 1995 in which certain rights of children are recognised. The fifth variable is the knowledge that South African children have special protection under the South African Constitution. The sixth variable is the Africanisation of the profession in South Africa. These variables have stressed the importance of compiling a competency-based framework for the training of child and youth care practitioners in South Africa that embraces all these variables.
Child and Youth Care is a phenomenon that is quite unfamiliar as an independent discipline in South Africa, and therefore the researcher chose a qualitative paradigm that is exploratory, descriptive, contextual and phenomenological to develop a competency-based framework for the training of Child and Youth Care practitioners in South Africa. The empirical research included phenomenological interviews with child and youth care trainers and a focus group interview with child and youth care practitioners. Literature was consulted in two stages, namely at the beginning to pose the problem and at the conclusion of the research to compare and contrast the findings (Cresswell, 1994:24).
The four criteria to ensure trustworthiness are credibility, transferability, dependability and
confirmability. The criteria to obtain this included the triangulation of various methods of data collection and by confirming results with respondents. Detailed descriptions were done to enhance the study's chance of being replicated in another setting. The services of an external coder were utilised. A detailed protocol for data collection is provided. The categories that emerged from the research were compared with literature and used to compile a competencybased framework for the training of Child and Youth Care Practitioners in South Africa.