Understanding Youth and Community Work
20 Credits
(Compulsory)
This module will form a foundation of the historical philosophies, origins, policies, and present-day contexts of youth and community work. It will aim to encourage students to begin to contextualize their own professional identities in relation to the broad range of areas that practitioners work with young people and communities. Finally, the module will critically analyze the inherently political nature of youth and community work practice.
Study Skills for University
20 Credits
(Compulsory)
Students will use experiential learning through weekly-directed learning activities which will introduce them to the demands of individual and group academic study. The module provides space and time to practice academic tasks designed to explore key university systems, processes, and support mechanisms, whilst encouraging students to plan for the maintenance and development of their individual skills and abilities needed for success in Higher Education. The module will introduce students to the concept of ‘reflective practice’ and its theoretical underpinnings. By the end of the module the students will be able to reflect ‘on action’ (Schon). Students will be expected to be able to discuss reflections on theoretical applications and display a degree of autonomy in doing so.
Working with Children, Young People, and Families: Key thinkers and their big ideas
20 Credits
(Compulsory)
WWCYPF is a multi-disciplinary subject that draws on key ideas from a range of different academic traditions – sociology, psychology, development studies, cultural studies and philosophy, politics, and Economics (PPE). In this module, students will be introduced to some of the key thinkers and the big ideas that have shaped the way these different academic traditions have characterized children, young people, and families and what they have had to say about working professionally in that field. The module will seek to give students a broad foundation of the theory that has shaped and influenced service developments and delivery and introduce them to the way conflicting ideas help to shape the way we think about basic questions for example, what we mean by notions of ‘family’, ‘childhood’, ‘kinship’ or our ideas about ‘need’, ‘vulnerability’ and ‘good’ or ‘bad’ childhoods.
Planning for Applied Reflective Practice
20 Credits
(Compulsory)
This module seeks to support students in preparation for their 800 hours of fieldwork practice across levels 5 & 6. The module aims to provide students with the opportunity to explore and visit a range of contexts; both statutory and third sector, where Youth & Community Work practice takes place in and as a result; identify and secure their fieldwork practice organization in preparation for level 5. This module seeks to provide students with the opportunity to begin to shape their own professional identities.
An Introduction to Social Policy
20 Credits
(Compulsory)
This module will examine some of the over-arching social policy issues that shape the working agenda around children, young people, and families. To do this it will be structured around the key issues identified by William Beveridge as the ‘giants’ of social policy – education, poverty, housing, health (including safeguarding and protection of the vulnerable), and work. These topics will be analyzed in the context of the challenges that face professionals working within the current model of the welfare state.
Understanding Groups & Self
20 Credits
(Compulsory)
This module will examine group development, group work, and the importance of the impact of ‘the self’ in these contexts. Using theoretical input from tutors; students will apply their learning to ‘real life’ group experiences and themselves both within and outside the university setting; to enrich their understanding. Students will be encouraged to examine their own behavior within groups and then articulate, using theory, their understanding of these behaviors and their impact on group dynamics. Students will keep a weekly reflective blog based on a variety of groups they belong to and illustrate the group's development.