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MA

Working for Children and Young People (Youth Work Initial Qualifying)

Qualify as a professional Youth and Community worker in one academic year by studying this professionally accredited course.

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Key Course Details

  • Start Date

    September

  • Location

    Newport

  • Campus Code

    C

Fees

  • International students

    £16,900*

  • Start Date

    September

  • Location

    Newport

  • Campus Code

    C

Fees

  • Home students

    £1,200*

  • Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.

The course has been co-written with employers from the field to ensure you are gaining the skills, knowledge and qualities that are essential to make you employable as a Youth and Community Worker.

DESIGNED FOR

Our professionally endorsed programme will enable you to find the best in children and young people, support them as individuals and to ultimately develop and thrive. Every young person deserves the chance to be the best version of themselves - this course teaches you how to do that.

Accredited by

Education Training Skills Wales (ETS)

Career Paths

  • Youth and Community Worker
  • Restorative Justice and Preventions
  • Sport and Outdoor Learning
  • Community Development
  • Housing

Skills taught

  • Leadership
  • Research Skills
  • Bid writing and  Project management
  • Professional Values
  • Safeguarding and Ethics

Course Highlights

Professionally Qualifying

Professionally endorsed by Education Training Skills Wales (ETS), enabling you to qualify as a professional Youth and Community worker in one academic year. If you wish to complete the full MA, you will need to study for 2 years.

Designed with Employers and Community Groups

The course has been designed to reflect the changing statutory and voluntary social and education sector. We have co-written our modules with those in practice to endure it stays current throughout its lifespan.

Interprofessional Learning

The course focusses on inter-professional practice, and how the needs of children, young people, families and communities can best be met in a rapidly changing policy, strategic and operational context.

On the Job Training

The taught element of the course happens on one day a week. Alongside this, you will also undertake two professional placements, totalling 300 hours.

Module Overview

In year one you will study the modular content of the pathway. This is the taught element of the course and will involve attendance at lectures, seminars, tutorials alongside your professional practice placement and a variety of outdoor learning settings.

Applying Values, Principles and Policies in Youth and Community Work

Values, purpose, and professional identity of Youth Work, enabling students to understand and demonstrate ownership of their own professional identities through exploration of the theories, practices and principles that underpin Youth Work.

Professional Practice

To enable students to further develop and consolidate their Youth and Community Work skills, knowledge and competencies through engagement in constructive professional learning (300 hours) and related critical reflection.

Restorative Justice with children, young people and communities

To critique traditional, informal small society and community led cultural practices which respond to conflict and examine how these have influenced the movement and shape of restorative approaches across countries, disciplines and services.

Ethics, Reflection and Safeguarding

To provide students with the tools to think independently, sensitively and critically about the role that ethical values play, and how ethical challenges are negotiated, in work with children and young people.

Sport, Play and Outdoor Learning in Youth Work

For the student to examine the development of young people through the medium of sport, play and outdoor learning, with emphasis on targeted provision and outcome informed reflection.

Research methods, leadership and project management

For students to be equipped with the necessary skills, knowledge and understanding to plan research and to demonstrate vision, originality, reflective practice and reflexivity and leadership.

Year two is focused on the completion of your choice of either a dissertation or a major project. This will be supervised by an academic with either an academic interest or professional background aligned with your chosen area of research.

Major Project

To enable students to produce a logical, coherent, and defensible study which is critical and analytical, which evaluates the research process and findings and draws logical and thoughtful conclusions and recommendations for practice and /or for further research.

Dissertation

To enable students to produce a logical, coherent, and defensible study which is critical and analytical, which evaluates the research process and findings and draws logical and thoughtful conclusions and recommendations for practice and /or for further research.

Course Highlights

How you’ll learn

Relationships with employers, workforce representatives and community groups inform teaching of course content. We draw on a diverse range of Youth and Community Work practitioners who deliver elements of modules in a way that links practice experience to the theoretical understanding that students develop in their taught modules. This relationship with practitioners is crucial in enabling and facilitating the way students’ reflection on how theory links to practice and vice versa.

A variety of appropriate assessment activities makes for a richer student experience (External Examiner, 2018). This course builds upon the creative and innovative assessments seen in the previous iteration with further embedding of employability skills and a more diverse and inclusive curriculum and assessment offer.

Teaching Staff

  • Mark Iggulden – MA Course Leader.  Module leader for: Sport, play and outdoor learning, Research methods, leadership and project management & Dissertation/Major Project.
  • Louise Simpson - Level seven placement coordinator.
  • Lise Jacobsen – Module Leader for: Applying values, principles and policies in youth and community Work.
  • Jon Airdrie – Module Leader for: Restorative justice with children, young people and communities.
  • Kelly McCarthy – Module Leader for:  Professional practice.
  • Paul Lewis – Module Leader for: Ethics, Reflection and Safeguarding.
  • Alun Prosser – Lecturer Ethics, Reflection and Safeguarding

Placements

This module encompasses learning and teaching underpinning students’ practice experiences. It provides an opportunity for students to learn about and understand the theoretical concepts that make sense of their professional ‘face to face’ delivery of Youth and Community Work across settings. 300 hours of professional placement are the PRSB pre requisite for JNC qualifying students.

Facilities

This MA programme is taught in a wide variety of learning environments, classrooms, lecture theatres, outdoor learning classrooms, lakes, gorges and mountain environments.

Accredited by

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

This innovative course is for graduates from a relevant academic background (2:2 or above) and profession, looking to gain both a JNC professional qualification in Youth Work and a postgraduate qualification.

In exceptional circumstances students who do not meet the academic entry requirements but can evidence extensive Youth and Community work may be considered. Such decisions are always made in consultation with ETS Wales.

Additional Requirements

Applicants should be able to evidence a minimum of 200 hours practice experience with young people aged 11 to 25 years old. Please submit a reference with your application to confirm this.

International applications welcomed:

We welcome international applications with equivalent qualifications of our entry requirements. For more details related to your country of residence, please view our dedicated country pages.

English language requirements

International applicants will need to have achieved an overall of IELTS 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component/TOEFL 72 overall and a minimum of 18 in reading, 17 in listening, 20 in speaking and 17 in writing or equivalent.

Equivalents can be located on our English Language pages.

If you have previously studied through the medium of English, IELTS might not be required, please visit our country specific page for further details. If your country is not featured, please contact us.

If you do not meet the English entry criteria, please visit our Pre-Sessional course pages.

Contextual offers

We may make you a lower offer based on a range of factors, including your background (where you live and the school or college that you attended, for example), your experiences and individual circumstances (as a care leaver, for example). This is referred to as a contextual offer, and we receive data from UCAS to support us in making these decisions.

USW prides itself on its student experience and we support our students to achieve their goals and become a successful graduate. This approach helps us to support students who have the potential to succeed and who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university.

 

We're here to help

Whether you a have a question about your course, fees and funding, the application process or anything else, there are plenty of ways you can get in touch, and we'd love to talk to you. You can contact our friendly admissions team by phone, email or chat to us online.

 

Fees and Funding

International Full-time Fee

£16,900

per year*
UK Part-time Fee

£1,200

per 20 credits*

Further Information

Studying at university is one of the most significant investments you'll ever make. Whilst you’re studying, you’ll have two main financial obligations – tuition fees and living costs. There’s lots of financial help available from the University of South Wales and external funding sources, that may provide loans (which have to be paid back) and grants, scholarships and bursaries (that don't).

*Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits. Once enrolled, the fee is anticipated to remain at the same rate throughout the duration of your study on this course except as described below.

Please be aware that we may increase the maximum fee for home students on full-time undergraduate courses only where the Welsh Government increases the permitted level of inflation of fees. Fees for all students (including part-time, postgraduate and international students) may be amended in accordance with our applicable Fees and Debt Management Policy.  We will ensure that students are given clear, intelligible, unambiguous and timely information about our courses and costs in good time, ahead of the next academic year.

 

Fees and Funding Scholarships and Busaries Alumni Discount

ADDITIONAL COSTS

As a student of USW, you’ll have access to lots of free resources to support your study and learning, such as textbooks, publications, online journals, laptops, and plenty of remote-access resources. Whilst in most cases these resources are more than sufficient in supporting you with completing your course, additional costs, both obligatory and optional, may be required or requested for the likes of travel, memberships, experience days, stationery, printing, or equipment.

* Obligatory

 Students will be expected to pay for a DBS or certificate of good behaviour from their home country. The DBS fee includes £49.50 for the enhanced DBS certificate, the Post Office Administration fee and the online administration fee

Cost: £64.74

Subscription required for each year of the course for a yearly fee of £16. Please note the service has to be joined within 30 days of receipt of your enhanced DBS certificate

Cost: £16

Short Taster Courses

Thinking of a career in Youth and Community Work? Learn more about the field and the types of skills you’ll need to progress, through USW’s Youth and Community Work taster courses.

Youth and Community Work Taster Courses

University Quality Assurance

At USW, we regularly review our courses in response to changing patterns of employment and skills demand to ensure we offer learning designed to reflect today’s student needs and tomorrow’s employer demands.

If during a review process course content is significantly changed, we’ll write to inform you and talk you through the changes for the coming year. But whatever the outcome, we aim to equip our students with the skillset and the mindset to succeed whatever tomorrow may bring. Your future, future-proofed.

Studying at USW

Our courses are designed with industry leaders and provide the practical skills and experiences industry demands. Our flexible courses reflect the need for life-long learning. If you value education in practice, not just in theory, then USW is for you.

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Postgraduate fees and funding
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How to apply

There is an online application process for this course. Please choose the application form for your preferred start date and mode of study (i.e. full-time or part-time).

International admissions

Please see our international admissions advice for further information about how to apply as a prospective international student.

Related Courses

Early Years Education (Top Up) - BA (Hons) Learn more

Next Steps

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