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Youth and Community Work

Entry requirements


UCAS Tariff

112

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About this course


Course option

3years

Full-time | 2024

Subject

Youth and community work

We’ve helped students gain a Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) professional Youth and Community Work qualification at Birmingham Newman University since 2007.

Birmingham Newman has a long and proud history of teaching Youth and Community Work and has been at the forefront of developing Youth and Community Work education and training in the West Midlands. Our degree is accredited by the Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) for youth workers which means that you leave with a degree and with a professional qualification. This is an essential step in gaining graduate employment.

Our course is an exciting application of theory in real-life practice, which will develop you as a critically reflective practitioner.

You will undertake 800 hours of supervised practice in a broad range of Youth and Community Work settings, which will enable you to develop your own professional identity, skills, understanding and reputation throughout your studies and prepare you for your future career.

Our course welcomes socially-conscious and diverse student voices, from a range of backgrounds and learning experiences. To support your studies, you will be taught by a team of JNC Youth and Community Work professionally qualified, research-active and enthusiastic tutors, who have strong partnerships with local employers and experience nationally and internationally.

Why study Youth and Community Work?
Birmingham Newman is one of few professional Youth and Community Work courses in the West Midlands. Holding the professional JNC qualification means that you will be recognised nationally as a professional Youth Worker in the UK – expanding your employment options.

Studying at the University will provide you with a broad range of fieldwork practice experiences in both the statutory and voluntary sectors in projects including:

Young people and mental health
Centre-based youth projects
Detached youth projects
Homelessness projects and addiction issues

In all contexts, you will be supported to demonstrate your application of theory in practice with ‘hands-on’ learning.

You can expect to be challenged and supported while at Newman, and gain an understanding of the contemporary world, which will set you up for a long and satisfying career.

What does the course cover?

During your first year of study you will develop a foundation of knowledge around understanding Youth and Community Work and includes:

Understanding Youth and Community Work
Understanding groups and self
Planning for applied reflective practice
Study skills for university,
Key thinkers and their big ideas
Introduction to Social Policy

In your second year, you will build upon these modules to explore topics that include:
Researching social issues
Critical pedagogy
Intersectionality in Youth and Community Work
Applied Reflective Practice, (400 hr block placement with scheduled recall days to university)
One option module from a selection in Criminology or Working with Children, Young people, and Families*

In your final year of study, the modules you will be involved in are:
Dissertation (10,000 words)
Applied Reflective Practice (400 hr block placement with scheduled recall days to university)
Management
One option module from a selection in Criminology or Working with Children, Young people, and Families*
*The option modules are chosen from a selection each year and they may change from year to year.

Modules

Please refer to the Birmingham Newman University website for details.

Assessment methods

Please refer to the Birmingham Newman University website for details.

Tuition fees

Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:

Channel Islands
£9,250
per year
England
£9,250
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,250
per year
Republic of Ireland
£9,250
per year
Scotland
£9,250
per year
Wales
£9,250
per year

The Uni


Course location:

Birmingham Newman University

Department:

Criminology, Youth and Community Studies

Read full university profile

What students say


We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.

68%
Youth and community work

How do students rate their degree experience?

The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Social work

Teaching and learning

75%
Staff make the subject interesting
82%
Staff are good at explaining things
89%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
80%
Opportunities to apply what I've learned

Assessment and feedback

Feedback on work has been timely
Feedback on work has been helpful
Staff are contactable when needed
Good advice available when making study choices

Resources and organisation

80%
Library resources
91%
IT resources
74%
Course specific equipment and facilities
67%
Course is well organised and has run smoothly

Student voice

Staff value students' opinions
Feel part of a community on my course

Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

100%
UK students
0%
International students
11%
Male students
89%
Female students
37%
2:1 or above
28%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
C
C

After graduation


The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Social work

What are graduates doing after six months?

This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.

£16,300
low
Average annual salary
96%
med
Employed or in further education
36%
low
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

37%
Welfare and housing associate professionals
24%
Childcare and related personal services
14%
Caring personal services

We're short of social workers - so if you want a degree that is in demand, then this could be the one for you! There's a shortage of social workers all over the UK, and graduates can specialise in specific fields such as mental health or children's social work. If you decide social work is not for you, then social work graduates also often go into management, education, youth and community work and even nursing. Starting salaries for this degree can reflect the high proportion of graduates who choose a social work career - social work graduates get paid, on average, more than graduates overall, but not all options pay as well as social work. This is also an unusual subject in that London isn't one of the more common places to find jobs - so if you want to get a job near to your home or your university this might be worth thinking about.

What about your long term prospects?

Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.

Social work

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£16k

£16k

£21k

£21k

£20k

£20k

Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.

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Post-six month graduation stats:

This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.

It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.

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Graduate field commentary:

The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show

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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?

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