Profile

Liesl Conradie, Senior Lecturer - Child and Adolescent Studies

I have been involved in community work since my own first year at University. I started as a volunteer at a student-run Community Development organisation in South Africa and ended up as the Chairperson.

My experience at this organisation made me realise that I did make the right decision in my own choice of studies.

My first degree was in Public and Development Management which has a lot of similarities to a number of the core units in the Department of Applied Social Studies.

After completion of my post graduate studies at the University of Cambridge I started my career as a Youth Worker.

I am a professionally qualified youth worker that ended my 8 year career in the post of Locality Youth Work Coordinator as part of an inter-agency multi-disciplinary team in the Office of Children and Young People’s Services (OCYPS).

Sharing of knowledge and experience has always been incredibly important to me and for this reason I became a Youth Work and also Safeguarding Trainer for both the statutory and voluntary sector during my last 2 years of practice.

I lecture for the Open University on the Working with Young People degree.

I have significant experience of working with children and young people and love my job with the University of Bedfordshire as I feel I can contribute to a positive learning experience for students preparing themselves for work in the field.

My areas of interest are

• Safeguarding; Inter-agency, multidisciplinary working;
  
• Issues in Contemporary Society;
  
• Research and Understanding work with Children and Young People, and working with Children and Young People.

I have undertaken research in my work as a practitioner but also academic pieces of work. This Includes an ethnographic study of virtual communities and commerce on the Internet and a study of South Africa’s foreign policy with specific reference to SADC from 1994-2000.

Currently I am researching the impact of Social Networking Sites, for example, Facebook, on the self-perception, leisure pursuits and educational attainment of young people in the UK.

Contact details

E: liesl.conradie@beds.ac.uk
T: +44(0)1582 743214