Youth And Community Work MA

This course is in clearing

Overview

Course options

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MA

MA Youth And Community Work, home applicant, full time

  • Home Applicant
  • Full time, 1 year
  • Pound 8520 per year

MA Youth And Community Work, home applicant, part time

  • Home Applicant
  • Part time
  • Pound 1420 per 30 credit module

MA Youth And Community Work, international applicant, full time

  • International Applicant
  • Full time, 1 year
  • Pound 16560 per year

What makes this course different

Validated by the National Youth Agency

Professionally validated by the National Youth Agency - the national agency for youth work in the UK. As well as a Master's qualification, you will leave us with an accredited JNC youth work status.

50 years' experience in youth and community work

Learn from those professionally qualified in youth work. Between them, course tutors Paul Adams and Tracie Trimmer-Platman have over 50 years of experience working with communities and young people.

100% graduate employability

Our employment rate in youth and community work is second to none. Our students find jobs - 100 per cent of those who finished their PGDip or MA in 2014 secured youth-work-related posts.

Course modules

NOTE: Modules are subject to change. For those studying part time courses the modules may vary.

Download course specification

Your future career

Your future career

The traditional model of youth work, where you work in and later manage a youth club as the focal point of the community, is becoming less common.

The range of roles open to you now is as rewarding as it is wide. You could move into the Third Sector, a social enterprise, a housing association, a voluntary organisation or even a college. 
For example, a local college has employed graduates of this course as student enrichment officers - in effect working in informal education on a college site. 

Other graduates are working as youth workers, in pupil referral units and youth offending teams. You could specialise in more targeted work, whether it is around learning support, diversion from crime or working with people already in the justice system.

As your career progresses and you gain both experience and credibility in the field, you can move into more senior roles, perhaps shaping policy, working in national charities such as Barnardo's or The Children's Society or taking a sideways step into a non-governmental organisation (NGO).

You could also develop an international, as well as a national and local, focus to your career - for instance, taking young people abroad, supervising and supporting them to broaden their horizons on a community project overseas.

Explore the different career options you can pursue with this degree and see the median salaries of the sector on our Career Coach portal.

Nahim_Amed
Those three years were really crucial to me working in the youth setting because to this day I still use these theories, these practices, that I learnt, literally a decade ago."
Nahim Ahmed

Graduate

How we support your career ambitions

We offer dedicated careers support, and further opportunities to thrive, such as volunteering and industry networking. Our courses are created in collaboration with employers and industry to ensure they accurately reflect the real-life practices of your future career and provide you with the essential skills needed. You can focus on building interpersonal skills through group work and benefit from our investment in the latest cutting-edge technologies and facilities.

Career Zone

Our dedicated and award-winning team provide you with careers and employability resources, including:

  • Online jobs board for internships, placements, graduate opportunities, flexible part-time work.
  • Mentoring programmes for insight with industry experts 
  • 1-2-1 career coaching services 
  • Careers workshops and employer events 
  • Learning pathways to gain new skills and industry insight

Mental Wealth programme

Our Professional Fitness and Mental Wealth programme which issues you with a Careers Passport to track the skills you’ve mastered. Some of these are externally validated by corporations like Amazon and Microsoft.

Our Mental Wealth programme

We are careers first

Our teaching methods and geographical location put us right up top

  • Enterprise and entrepreneurship support 
  • We are ranked 6th for graduate start-ups 
  • Networking and visits to leading organisations 
  • Support in starting a new business, freelancing and self-employment 
  • London on our doorstep

What you'll learn

There are four core modules on the course. Two are the placement-based Fieldwork Practice modules 1 and 2.

In the university-based sessions, you will learn the principles of group work, theory, management and supervision as well as gain insight into youth work policy.

You will then apply this knowledge in the field. You could be organising workshops in schools, putting on informally structured learning activities, developing young people's interpersonal skills or working with partner organisations, such as the Youth Offending Service, housing associations, community organisations or schools.

The dissertation element of the course can have a tangible impact in the real world. For example, a current student is writing her dissertation on the effectiveness of anti-radicalisation programmes for Muslim youth run by a local foundation.

She is looking at the effectiveness of the foundation's approach and has interviewed staff, volunteers and young people to gather opinions and come up with future recommendations. Her dissertation will double as a report for the foundation.

How you'll learn

This master's course can be studied on a one-year full-time or a two-year part-time basis.

Typically, you will spend Tuesdays at the University of East London working through the core modules through lectures and discussion-led seminars or tutorials.

There will also be an opportunity for creative experience learning with occasional field trips to see community projects in action.

The rest of your week is largely taken up with your placement. The professional validation aspect of the course specifies that you must complete 400 hours in placement practice during your course – one 200-hour placement in each semester. The placements will be undertaken in different organisations/settings as agreed with the course team.

This practice-based learning is where theory meets practice. You will be able to bring in issues from your workplace and explore them in professional workshops with your fellow students.

On your placement, you may find yourself doing everything from outreach work to securing funding and resources for your placement organisation, from mentoring young people to completing evaluation forms.

You will be allocated a personal tutor who will be your contact while on placement. You will also have a JNC-qualified mentor or suitable equivalent in your placement organisation who will supervise, advise and monitor you.
We will support you to achieve the goals set out in your placement learning agreement.

How you will be assessed

There are certain national professional standards you have to meet and demonstrate through your placements. These will form part of the learning agreement we draw up with you and your organisation-based mentor before your placement.

Towards the end of your placement, a three-way meeting is set up with you, your mentor and your UEL tutor to ascertain whether you have met the goals set out in the learning agreement.

We ask the opinion of your mentor to help decide if you have passed your practice. That is a professional judgement and it is a pass or fail criterion.

Campus and facilities

Water Lane, Stratford

Who teaches this course

This course is delivered by School of Childhood and Social Care

The teaching team includes qualified academics, practitioners and industry experts as guest speakers. Full details of the academics will be provided in the student handbook and module guides.