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Introduction

Youth Work and Social Education (BA) (ETS Endorsed) offers a professional qualification for students, and through a social science lens it explores current and contemporary challenges that are faced by young people, including:

• Trauma
• Adverse Childhood Experiences
• Substance misuse
• County Lines
• Children’s Rights
• Health and Well-being
• The impact of relationships

The degree triangulates theory, policy and practice in an applied manner to enable graduates to be both excellent academics and excellent practitioners.

Known often as the ‘best kept secret’, youth work is a powerful approach to supporting young people to build resilience and resourcefulness, and to achieve their full potential. Youth work is based on developing good, positive relationships with young people, and acts as the foundation for supporting young people through a range of issues. This is why the youth work degree is often viewed by other professions as a highly desirable qualification.

PATHWAY OPTIONS

Youth Work and Social Education (BA)
UCAS Code: YWS1

Youth Work and Social Education (BA) with Foundation Year
UCAS Code: YWSF

Youth Work and Social Education (BA) (ETS Endorsed) is also available as a 4 year programme which incorporates a Foundation Year. The Foundation Year will provide students with the opportunity to engage in the Level 3 Award in Youth Work Practice, and will also equip the students with the confidence, knowledge, passion and skills required to progress to the BA Youth Work and Social Education (ETS Endorsed).

Location

Carmarthen

Course Length

3 years/ Part-time study available

Why choose this course?

• Gain a professionally endorsed qualification and an academic degree
• Explore practice with young people and their communities through engaging in youth work placement opportunities each year in wide-ranging young people and community settings
• Preparation for employment opportunities such as youth justice, health and well-being, community development, social enterprise and the police
• UWTSD is the only place where you can study this degree through the medium of Welsh
• Youth Work and Social Education (BA) (ETS Endorsed) is also considered an excellent first degree for entry to postgraduate study in a range of wider associated fields including children and young people’s health and well-being, children’s rights, social work, social enterprise, criminology and youth justice, and child and women abuse.

Overview

Youth Work and Social Education (BA) (ETS Endorsed) degree will equip students to be able to work with young people, communities and families, and to be practitioners who are fit for purpose in the 21st century. Through a social science lens, the programme will explore practice with young people and their communities in an applied manner, with a clear commitment to social justice, anti-oppressive practice, and underpinned by the core values and principles of youth work.

The course prepares students to become professionals to work with young people around a variety of issues – issues which are very current in today’s society, such as Child Sexual Exploitation, Adverse Childhood Experiences, Homelessness, Substance Misuse, Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Poverty and Obesity among young people – and exploring these in an applied manner, drawing on current research and best practice to equip graduates to be highly effective and reflective in their chosen fields. The programme aligns fully with Welsh Government’s commitment to “develop and strengthen specific provision aimed at supporting and improving outcomes for more vulnerable or marginalised young people’’ (WG, 2019, p.13).

Modules

Foundation Year – Level 3

• Academic Survival Skills (30 credits; compulsory)
• An Introduction to University Life: Flourishing as a Student (30 credits; compulsory)
• An Introduction to Youth Work Practice (60 credits; compulsory).

Year One - Level 4 (Cert HE, Dip HE & BA)

• Academic Study Skills for Students (20 credits; compulsory)
• Counselling Skills, Mindfulness and Therapeutic Practice (20 credits; compulsory)
• Professional Practice: Principles and Contexts of Work with Young People (20 credits; compulsory)
• Understanding Adolescence (20 credits; compulsory)
• Young People and Society 1: Advocacy, Empowerment, Participation and Rights (20 credits; compulsory)
• Youth Work Practice 1: Preparing the Workforce (20 credits; core).

Year Two - Level 5 (Dip HE & BA)

• No One is Too Small to Make a Difference: Working with Young People to Create a Climate of Change (20 credits; compulsory)
• Social Research for Professional Practice (20 credits; compulsory)
• Supervision, Leadership and Management for Professionals (20 credits; compulsory)
• Young People and Society 2: Mental Health, Well-being and Adverse Childhood Experiences (20 credits; compulsory)
• Youth Work Practice 2: Developing Practice (40 credits; core)

Year Three - Level 6 (BA)

• Dissertation (40 credits; compulsory)
• Young People and Society 3: Trauma, Exploitation and Toxic Childhood (20 credits; compulsory)
• Young People in Focus (20 credits; compulsory)
• Young People’s Well-being and Resilience (20 credits; compulsory)
• Youth Work Practice 3: Leading and Managing (20 credits; core).

Entry Criteria

• All applicants will be required to provide a satisfactory enhanced disclosure Child and Adult Workforce document from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).
• The programme requirements are between 80 and 96 points and above, however entry to the programme is based on individual merit.
• Due to the professional endorsement of the degree programme, all applicants need to have at least 100 hours of recent and relevant Youth Work experience.

ENTRY REQUIRED DOCUMENTS
Home Office Share Code
For EU students only.

IF no Qualification
Please provide CV with at least 2 years of work experience, and employee reference letter.

Assessment

ASSESSMENT METHODS

1. INTERNAL ENGLISH TEST if you don't have an English accredited certificate
2. Academic Interview


Assessment

Assessments are designed to reflect the requirements of the field and develop wide-ranging employability skills in students. There are no exams.

Career Opportunities

Due to their aspirations when applying for a place on the degree programme, many of our graduates find employment directly in the youth work field, in both the voluntary and maintained sectors. However, the youth work qualification is known for its transferability to wider associated fields, thus demonstrating how the skills that the graduates have developed while studying on the degree programme can be transferred into many settings, and skills that are welcomed within multidisciplinary teams.



Here are some specific examples of graduate destinations:

• Face to face youth work in a range of contexts including in schools, corporate parenting teams, post-16 work, Local Authority youth homeless projects
• Education Welfare Officer
• Work with organisations focussing on issues including substance misuse, projects which support homeless young people and others that focus on adoption, looked after young people, and young adult carers
• Community education
• Youth justice
• Local Health Board
• Students Union President
• PGL Activity Instructor and Group Leader
• Young People’s Peer Mentor for a national mental health charity
• Emotional Health Worker for a Local Authority Youth Service
• CAMHS Support Worker
• Family Support for young people with disabilities
• Post-16 Youth Worker for a Local Authority Youth Service
• Youth Worker with the Corporate Parenting Team at Local Authority Youth Service
• Unit Co-ordinator with a Childcare Team at a Local Authority
• Corporate Manager at a Local Authority Youth Service
• Senior Youth Officers at a Local Authority Youth Service



Many graduates decide to engage in further study. Recent graduates’ MA programmes include:

• Children and Young People: Health and Wellbeing (MA), UWTSD
• Children and Young People: Children’s Rights (MA), UWTSD
• Women and Child Abuse (MA), London Metropolitan University
• Criminology and Criminal Justice (MA), Swansea University
• Social Enterprise (MSc), Stirling University

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