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BA (Hons) Community and Youth Work with Integrated Foundation Year

Transform the lives of vulnerable communities. Empower disadvantaged young people to achieve their potential. Qualify for a career in youth and community work where you'll change lives every day.

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Students sitting listening and taking notes in a classroom
UCAS codeL540
Duration4 years
Fee (UK)£5,760
LocationOn campus

Course summary

Delivered by qualified and experienced community and youth workers, the BA (Hons) Community and Youth Work course provides you with both the practical and theoretical knowledge required to build a successful career working with young people and in communities across a range of settings.

You’ll gain an in-depth understanding of the challenges faced by young people and communities and learn how to implement effective strategies for change. The course focuses on social justice, with an emphasis on recognising and celebrating the strengths and resources within disadvantaged communities.

Designed to offer more than just theoretical knowledge, the degree integrates employability into its curriculum, ensuring you gain a holistic learning experience. Work placements are a key component of the course, offering you the opportunity to apply your learning in real-world settings and build valuable professional networks. By the time you graduate, you’ll have spent at least 800 hours on placement. You’ll also engage with the community development and youth work sector via guest lectures and speakers.

Upon successful completion, you’ll graduate with a professional Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) qualification in Youth Work alongside your degree. With a wide range of value-based and practical skills, you’ll be well-positioned for roles in local authorities, voluntary organisations, charities, and the social sector, where community and youth workers are in high demand.

We're seeking ESB recognition as a professional community development qualification for this course, though the validation process isn't yet complete.

Why Sunderland for Social Sciences

Integrated Foundation Year

This course is available with an Integrated Foundation Year, an extra year of your degree. This route offers a supportive way of transitioning into university study. It may be suitable for you if you:

  • Have valuable work or life experience but no formal qualifications
  • Are returning to education after a break
  • Want to change direction or explore a new career path
  • Have just missed the entry requirements for the three-year course.

We’re enhancing our Integrated Foundation Year to give you an even stronger start to your degree. The updated modules will align more with your chosen subject area. This will help you build the knowledge, confidence, and skills you need for your studies. We'll share full details soon and can't wait to tell you more.

Please note, this route isn’t available to international students.

What you'll study

Many of our courses include a range of modules you can choose from. Some options may only be available if you’ve already studied specific modules. If you’re not sure what you need before picking a module, your course leader can help.

Undergraduate module credits should total 120 credits per academic year. If optional modules are available, choose an amount that totals 120 credits.

How you'll learn

During your studying, some of your learning will take place in the classroom, learning from each other and reading. However, community development and youth work are vocations, 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 Community and Youth Work degree. By the time you graduate, you'll have spent at least 800 hours in professional practice, within a minimum of two local community development and youth work organisations. This means your learning can evolve in surprising places, such as around a pool table, on a walk, in a community café, or in a multi-agency meeting.

If you’re already working in a community and youth work setting, you may be able to complete your 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 isn't your workplace, to ensure you get the maximum benefit from your placement experience.

Learning on campus will reflect the collaborative, empowering, and reflective nature of community development and youth work – so expect a lot of dialogue, reflection, and group work. Throughout your degree, you'll have one-to-one support from a designated Personal Academic Tutor.

The course utilises a range of assessment methods, including written assignments (reports, essays, reflections); individual, paired and group presentations; professional discussions; and the construction of portfolios. The broad range of assessment strategies encompasses the skills required within the community development and youth work profession, allowing you to develop a wide range of competencies while gradually increasing your confidence.

Entry requirements

Fees and finance support

UK£5,760

Undergraduate fees are set according to rules from Government in line with forecast inflation. If you're a Home fee-paying student, the fee for your first year of study for 2026/27 will be £9,790. You'll pay tuition fees for every year of study. Fees may increase every year based on the Retail Price Index.

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See all course tuition fees.

Full-time UK/Irish/EU settled/EU pre-settled students may be eligible for financial support. This would cover your fees for the full four years. UK and EU settled students may also be eligible to receive a maintenance loan.

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UK students

Disclaimer

We want to make sure you have clear and accurate information about our courses. Our website always shows the latest updates. If you’ve applied and you're offered a place, we’ll contact you in writing if anything important changes.

For more information, view our programme specifications. These include course content, learning outcomes, and the skills you'll gain.