Guide to AYWC Work-Based Trainee Program

18-month program for social service professionals

Program Description

The American Youth Work Center’s Practical Training Program enables early career foreign social service professionals to enter the U.S. legally to receive practical, hands-on experience in American social service agencies and to earn the prevailing wage, plus benefits. AYWC offers 18-month hands-on placements in American social service agencies, such as programs for troubled youth, youth corrections, employment training, outdoor and wilderness programs, runaway and homeless youth shelters, drug and alcohol abuse counseling, delinquency treatment, and programs for the mentally retarded, developmentally disabled, or mentally ill.

AYWC believes that foreign and American social service workers can learn a lot from one another – through their individual backgrounds, the similarities and differences in client behaviors and issues, and the various treatment strategies implemented in the field. We expect that, in the long run, the program will strengthen the social service systems of the participating countries and encourage social service workers to remain committed to their profession.

Since 1986, more than 2,000 people from Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica and Canada have participated in the program. Most placements are in the Northeast United States.

Typical Practical Trainees

Most practical trainees are aged 22 – 36, with a college degree or other advanced training – usually two years or more of relevant work experience in direct care and assistance to children, teens, young adults or the handicapped. Practical trainees rarely leave managerial or supervisory positions for this program, so candidates who are either under- or overqualified for the direct service training opportunities that this program offers should not apply.

Length of Placement

All placements are 18 months, the maximum allowed by law. In our program, you must agree to and are obligated under U.S. Immigration Law to leave the U.S. within 30 days of the end of your placement, or immediately if you leave your placement early for any reason.

Cost of Living

Applicants must realize that regardless of exchange rate fluctuations, the American wage offered more than covers normal modest living expenses: food, clothing, gasoline, air travel and taxes. Many trainees opt to share apartments, or even rooms, in order to save money on rent.

Placement locations

You can familiarize yourself with the agencies with which AYWC has connections. You could be placed at one of these social service Training Site Agencies