If you are applying for this course from within the UK, click apply now
Course starts: 20 September 2021Apply now
If you are applying for this course from outside the UK, click apply now
Course starts: 20 September 2021Apply now
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Transform the lives of vulnerable communities. Empower disadvantaged young people to achieve their potential. Qualify for an incredibly satisfying career where you'll be changing lives every day.
Register your interestThis course combines an honours degree with a professional qualification in youth work, training you to become a fully qualified youth worker with a nationally recognised professional qualification.
The Community and Youth Work team is busy making preparations and adapting the delivery of our course.
As a professionally validated course we will ensure that you can combine theoretical learning with developing your professional practice. This will be done in a variety of different ways. You will be able to complete some coursework online, either by yourself or in structured sessions with your tutor and/or fellow students. We are working closely with the University support services to ensure that you have all the support and help you might need to build on your skills as an independent learner and professional.
You will also meet your tutors and fellow students in regular face-to-face sessions where you can reflect on your learning, exchange ideas and explore the underlying principles and values that form the basis of the community and youth work profession.
Alongside the University-based, taught modules you will maintain close links to professional practice by being attached to a community and youth work agency. Here you will have the chance to gain first-hand experience of current community and youth work practice, understand the issues facing young people and communities, build on and develop your practical skills and extend your professional networks. The exact nature of your involvement with fieldwork agencies will reflect their working practice at the time. Regular sessions to share and reflect on your experience of professional practice are embedded in the structure of the course.
In the coming months before commencing your studies please contact the team if we can offer any further guidance before joining us:
Dan Connolly dan.connolly@sunderland.ac.uk
Ilona Buchroth Ilona.buchroth@sunderland.ac.uk
Liz Woolley liz.woolley@sunderland.ac.uk
Rick Bowler rick.bowler@sunderland.ac.uk
We will make all reasonable efforts to provide the courses and student experience outlined. It may be necessary to make changes in response to COVID-19 whilst we continue to follow government guidance. View our FAQs for more information or contact us.
Community and Youth Work is a vocation, and it’s important to learn from real work-based experience as well as from academic study. For this reason, work placements are an integral part of the degree. By the time you graduate you will have spent at least 888 hours in professional practice.
If you’re already working in a community and youth work setting, then you may be able to take a placement at your workplace, as long as the work is relevant and there are adequate supervision arrangements in place. You’ll also need to complete at least one placement in a setting which is not your workplace, to ensure that you get the maximum benefit from your placement experience.
Our teaching style is true to the collaborative, empowering and reflective nature of Community and Youth Work. You will be assessed through essays, group work, presentations, reports and reflective pieces; assessment methods are clearly linked to the skills needed in practice. Throughout your degree you will have one to one support from a designated lecturer who will support your progress from Fresher’s week to Graduation.
Our typical offer is:
Qualification | Minimum grade |
---|---|
High School Diploma along with one of the following at the required grade: SAT I and SAT II, ACT or Advanced Placement | GPA 3.0 or above and: Sat score of 1100/1600 from SATs AP (Grades 3+ in at least 2 subjects) ACT (score of 26+) |
If your qualification is not listed above, please contact the Student Administration team at studentadmin@sunderland.ac.uk for further advice.
To apply for this degree you must have experience (voluntary or paid) in a community and/or youth work setting. This could include volunteering during weekends, evenings, or holidays. You should clearly describe this experience in the personal statement section of your application. As a guide, most successful applicants will have experience lasting at least a year, though in some cases we do accept students with a shorter, more intensive experience.
We interview all applicants, and you should be ready to talk about your voluntary or paid experience in a community and/or youth work setting in the interview.
If you don't currently hold a level 3 qualification you may still be eligible for this course – around half of our students are mature students with alternative qualifications or experience. In the interview we'll ask you about your experience, to see if it is equivalent to the required academic qualifications.
Please note that you must also have a satisfactory Enhanced Disclosure Barring Service check in order to go on placements.
If you don't meet our standard entry requirements, we also offer this course with an Integrated Foundation Year.
If English is not your first language, please see our English language requirements.
The annual fee for this course is:
Learn more about settled status, pre-settled status, special discounts, visa requirements and Common Travel Area (CTA) agreements for the Republic of Ireland applicants in our Help and Advice article.
Take a look at the Your Finances section to find out about the scholarships and bursaries that may be available to you.
This information was correct at the time of publication.
Qualified Community and Youth Workers remain in high demand. With a varied repertoire of value-based and practice-related skills Community and Youth Workers find employment throughout local authorities and the voluntary, charity and social enterprise sectors. We are proud that our graduates work in a wide variety of roles including traditional Community and Youth Work, Mental Health, Prisons, Schools, Housing Agency, Children’s Rights and many more.
As a qualified professional, you’ll be eligible for the higher levels of salary scales set by the Joint Negotiating Committee for Youth and Community Workers.
The University of Sunderland’s Centre for Applied Social Studies (CASS) regularly hosts visiting speakers, and it can be an excellent way to learn from the real-life experience of people who already have a strong track record in social policy.
CASS is the centre for applied social science research at the University, and you may find opportunities to collaborate with the academic team – particularly on areas relating to children, young people and families.
Community and youth work is a vocation, and it's important to learn from real-work based experience as well as from academic study. For this reason, work placements are an integral part of the degree. By the time you graduate you will have spent at least 888 hours in professional practice. As well as exposing you to a range of experiences and helping you understand the realities of community and youth work, placements are also an excellent way of establishing professional contacts for your career.
The state of the art services provided by the University and online resources are second to none.
I go home each day knowing that I have made a real difference to the lives of others.
The programme provided interesting and informative modules.
The lecturers were amazing; the time and energy they had for me were second to none.
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