Would you like a rewarding career supporting vulnerable young people? Do you have a passion to help them reach their full potential? A career in youth and community development is the opportunity to make a crucial difference to people’s lives.

Through gaining the professional skills and knowledge taught on this course, your work can provide support to families and community groups and help empower and keep young people safe.

The blend of practical and academic skills you’ll be taught on this programme can prepare you for a range of jobs across several sectors. It will help develop you as a progressive practitioner, providing opportunities to explore various concepts and practices of social justice and equality. With the option to study either full-time or part-time, you can manage your studies effectively alongside work commitments. This programme is ideal for those who use group work, informal learning, outreach and community work as part of their role, particularly those working with young people and adults often identified as ‘hard to reach’.

Throughout this course you’ll benefit from inter-professional learning as the course attracts professionals from a variety of settings and sectors worldwide, including parenting education, youth work, children’s centres, sexual health, drug and substance abuse, housing and homelessness, youth offending, disability, mental health, community development, domestic violence, local government sector, voluntary and not-for-profit sector and non-governmental organisations.

Key features

• Benefit from the flexible approach this programme offers, allowing you to tailor your studies specifically to your career interests, enhancing your employment opportunities in your desired field.
• You have the choice to study part-time or full-time alongside your work commitments, mainly through distance learning with two block teaching weeks per academic year.
• With this course you’ll be able to develop your skills to be an innovative, progressive practitioner, able to engage reflectively with concepts and practices of social justice and equality.
• Learn from our team of expert academics who can draw on more than 55 years’ professional training experience in the field, so their sector insight will inform your learning and keep you acquainted with contemporary challenges and practices.
• Research conducted by our academics in areas such as Diversity and Inequalities, Youth Work and Community Development, Public Health and Professional Practice, Health and Social Care; is embedded into the curriculum to ensure learning is current and relevant.
• Many of our graduates progress on to a wide variety of careers in youth work and community development, as well as other roles related to non-clinical, non-medical health and educational services in both the statutory and voluntary sectors.

Structure and assessment

Course modules

There are two pathways to choose from:

• The generic pathway; offering the greatest flexibility
• The management pathway; including bespoke management modules and a management-focused dissertation.

Core modules include:

• Theory and Practice of Community Development – introduces students to key concepts explored in relation to practice, policy and National Occupation Standards
• Theory and Practice of Youth Work – using the National Occupational Standards students will be introduced to the key concepts in youth and community development work. and the key theoretical contexts for youth and community practice: political (policy), sociological, philosophical, historical and psychological
• Health and Social Research Methods – introduces strategies and methods of social science research commonly used in social and healthcare settings.

You will also choose four modules from a range of optional modules, depending on availability, your preferred pathway and specific career interests, including:

• Issues of Health and Well-being
• Mental Health
• Contemporary Social Issues
• Global Issues in Youth and Community Development
• Managing Race and Diversity
• Anti-oppressive Practice – analyses concepts of oppression, discrimination and inequality and develops effective anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory practice
• Management of Services and People – increases self-confidence and performance as a manager of people and projects within a youth work and community development environment
• The Negotiated Module – allows you to formulate, present and implement an individual proposal in an area of professional relevance and interest

Please contact us for optional module descriptions and further information. For completion of the full MA, you will also be required to undertake.

Dissertation – Students must choose a youth and community development related topic identified in discussion with academic staff

Facilities and features