BA (Hons) Applied Community and Youth Work

When can you start this course? | UCAS code | Fees | Course length | Entry requirements

Why choose this course?

• If you're interested in young people, their communities and the pressures faced by them, then this practical course is for you.
• It's approved by the National Youth Agency so you can be sure that you'll receive a recognised professional qualification. They have placed this course in their highest category, which reflects the excellent teaching you'll receive on the course.
• You'll go on three work placements, so you can use the knowledge and skills you have learned in the classroom, in a real work environment.
• This course will equip you with the knowledge and skills you'll need to work positively with others.

About the course

Youth and community work is changing as the pressures faced by young people and their communities are becoming more severe and more complicated. Youth and community workers deal with the problems of homelessness, poverty, drug misuse, crime and abuse.

We've designed this course so you can meet these challenges and respond to those in need of support. Providing help to those who are vulnerable and face problems in their society will give you a great deal of personal achievement and career fulfilment. You'll have the opportunity to develop the understanding, skills and practical experience you need to work positively with others to encourage change. You'll look at the destructive effects of discrimination and how you can make a positive response to the common challenge of equal opportunities.

You'll be taught in a range of ways, including lectures, tutorials, workshops, activity-based group work and you'll also complete your own self-directed study. At each stage of the course you'll go on work placements in different settings to gain an insight into the different environments you could work in when you graduate. Some of our students have had placements with young offenders, with teenage pregnancy and parenthood, in youth clubs and dealing with domestic violence, school exclusion and homelessness. Placements are a great way of applying the theory you learn in practice. If you're already employed in a community and youth work setting, then you can use this for most of your assessed placements.

We understand the anxieties that studying can raise, so you'll find there's plenty of support for you. There are no exams; you'll be assessed through work placements and assignments including essays, reflective diaries, reports, placement portfolios and posters.

Find out more about what subjects and modules you'll be studying...

Your career

The employment rate for community and youth work students is very high. Here are just some of the areas you could work in when you've completed the course:

• youth and community centres
• hostels for homeless young people and adults
• work with excluded pupils
• projects based on youth arts, youth offending, drug and alcohol misuse, care leavers and health education.

If you're already employed in community and youth work, you can use this setting for most of your assessed placements.

What our students say

Matt, graduate
"I have always enjoyed my work with young people. But the course helped me to build on my experience and understand the bigger picture of policy and theory, and how these can link with my practice."
When Matt started the BA (Hons) Applied Community and Youth Work course he was working full time as a youth worker and studying part time. The course gave him the flexibility he needed to fit studying around his job. After Matt graduated he got a challenging new post. It involves managing youth work, adventure education, a drugs project, a young mum's project and work with young people not accessing education, training or employment. Having had a bad experience of education at school, Matt thought he wanted nothing to do with higher education. Now with a degree and a new job, he's glad he changed his mind.

Jane Birkin, one of our graduates who now works as an Equality Outreach Officer for the Police.
"I have always found this to be a very transferable degree, and since graduating, I have managed a Youth Offending Service in Leicester, been a Project Manager working with Young Carers, a support worker to young people on Apprenticeships and now I'm working as an Equality Outreach Officer for the Police."

"The course has been brilliant. It wasn't easy to start with. I never did all that well at school and it took me a while to get the hang of writing essays. I'd worked for the youth service part time and never thought of it as full time job. It was just something I liked doing. Now I'm a qualified worker. I knew I'd learn about the youth work but didn't realise how much I'd learn about me."  

How you'll learn

Different people learn best in different ways and so the course adopts a variety of methods to enable your learning. Throughout the course, but in the first year in particular, learning is based upon your personal and professional experience. Reflecting on your own and others' experience, discussion, reading and placement practice gives you the raw materials with which to analyse and improve your work. The following are some of the means by which the course helps you learn:

• lectures
• small and large group discussions
• workshops
• student presentations
• tutorials
• placements and placement supervision.
• study support groups
• learning partners
• self-assessments
• formal written assignments and their research

In addition to the core tutor team, there are also visiting speakers from the field and supervisors who work with you during your fieldwork placements. One of the most valuable resources for your learning is the members of your student group and students at other levels of the course. Learning takes place both formally in timetabled sessions and informally wherever course members meet.

How you're assessed

There are no examinations. Assessment takes place through placement practice and written assignments. Assessment varies according to what is being assessed. For example, you may be asked to do all or any of the following:

• assess your own strengths and weakness
• evaluate your learning during the placement
• design, deliver and evaluate a social education package with young people
• analyse your professional practice in the placement
• make a presentation to your student group and evaluate the process
• write and evaluate a funding application
• reflect on different approaches to counselling and their relevance to the worker.

Assessments are phased over the academic year and support for your written work is offered in the module sessions and in tutorials. Managing your time and energy and using the available support are some of the most important ingredients in successfully completing assessments.

Work placements

There are three placements, one in each stage. Placements provide one of the most significant parts of the course, both in terms of the credits gained and the learning involved for each student. Students identify their professional and personal needs and are matched to placements accordingly, or where appropriate, may use their current employment. Students speak highly of their experiences on placement, often finding employment as a result of their work.

Anything else?

There's a national shortfall of qualified community and youth workers. Current social policies have recognised the need for work with youth people and with communities to tackle a range of social problems. We recruit a wide range of experienced, interesting, committed people, many of whom had never expected to study at university but who prove to themselves that they can. We offer advisory interviews if you wish to discuss your application and/or meet current students.

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