The BA (Hons) Youth and Community Studies is designed to provide an academic qualification which builds on professionally recognised Foundation Degree (FdA) in Youth and Community Work and its predecessor, the Diploma in Higher Education (Youth and Community Work). Both the Diploma and FdA are endorsed by the National Youth Agency and are recognised by the Joint Negotiating Committee as conferring nationally qualified status as a youth worker. The BA (Hons) Youth and Community Studies provides experienced, qualified youth workers with a further theoretically focussed course which builds on their existing status as reflective practitioners. It is also suitable for applicants holding Diplomas in Higher Education or Foundation Degrees from the wider Children’s and Young People’s Workforce and work with communities and also for applicants holding relevant alternative qualifications.

In the UK, youth and community workers and workers with young people are employed within local authorities’ youth services and integrated services. They are also employed by a wide range of voluntary and charitable organisations, the Army, schools and health education agencies. Like the BA (Hons) Youth and Community Work and the FdA Youth and Community Work, the BA (Hons) Youth and Community Studies was developed in collaboration with employers and has strong links with the field, both locally and regionally.

The main aims of the programme are to:

11.1 Provide a route to honours level for individuals holding the professionally endorsed national qualification in youth and community work and qualifications in related areas, providing them with the academic skills to progress on to higher level courses;

11.2 Offer a programme of study which requires students to undertake a comprehensive analysis of youth and community work as a form of informal education and to address the diverse ways in which the term may be understood and applied;

1.3 Develop further the integration of theory and practice which requires the application of cognitive and transferable skills to professional situations;

11.4 Enable students to show evidence of a deepening and broadening of knowledge and understanding of the key issues related to youth and community work;

11.5 Develop in students the necessary critical awareness of personal, intellectual and subject-specific skills, combined with an attitude which is open-minded and responsive to change, in order to enable them through professional development to enhance their current roles, take on new responsibilities and pursue life-long learning;

11.6 Enable students to use relevant theory to critically analyse their own values, assumptions, beliefs and practice and to provide a base from which to consider alternatives;

1.7 Enable students to use different enquiry methods to provide data, to analyse the data and to develop approaches to address issues and problems in the field.

The course values equality and diversity and fully complies with the statutory requirements of the Equality Act (2010).