Youth Work, Health and Community Development MA/PG Dip
Master
Distance
Description
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Type
Master
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Methodology
Distance Learning
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Duration
1 Year
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Online campus
Yes
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Delivery of study materials
Yes
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Support service
Yes
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Virtual classes
Yes
Professionally validated by the National Youth Agency and the Endorsement and Quality Standards Board for Community Development Learning, this course will help you master skills to support young people and communities and handle the complexities of social justice. The programme is ideal for pursuing careers in areas such as education, sexual health, housing and homelessness, and mental health.
By choosing this course, you’ll benefit from inter-professional learning, with the course attracting professionals from a variety of settings including youth work, parenting education, children’s centres, sexual health, drug abuse, housing and homelessness, youth offending, mental health, community development and domestic violence.
On this programme you’ll study a range of topics exploring the theory and practice of community development, anti-oppressive practice, health and social research methods and issues in health and wellbeing. You’ll also develop your practical and professional skills by putting theory in to practice with dedicated work placement modules.
Facilities
Location
Start date
Start date
About this course
Graduates go in to a wide range of senior posts in youth work and health and community development work in both the public and voluntary sector. An MA is a recommended qualification for workers to hold senior positions.
You need to demonstrate that you can work at masters level which can be achieved through having a first degree, normally 2:2 or above, or by having a range of academic and work experience
Applications from individuals with no formal academic qualifications, but extensive practical experience, will be considered on an individual basis
You may be required to undertake pre-registration modules before starting or complete an agreed portfolio of learning in the form of a 2,000-2,500-word pre-course assignment, determined at application or interview stage
Key features
Professional validation by the National Youth Agency and recognition by the Joint Negotiating Committee ensures the content you study is continually relevant to industry and the current developments and challenges within the sector.
Our programme is the only youth work and community development postgraduate distance learning programme in England to have dual professional recognition.
By choosing this course, you have the opportunity to study part-time or full-time alongside your work commitments, mainly through distance learning.
Achieve planned change and enhance your employment opportunities with modules specifically designed for staff in local authorities, the NHS (non-clinical roles), voluntary, third sector and non-governmental organisations; ensuring your learning is relevant to current practice.
You can benefit from our expert teaching, with more than 55 years’ professional training to draw upon as well as first-hand experience of the field. Our teaching is informed by our diverse team of skilled tutors, with many of our academics actively engaged in professional practice, research and consultancy across a range of sectors.
Graduates from this course have gone on to pursue a wide range of careers in youth work and health and community development in the statutory and voluntary sector.
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Subjects
- Mental Health
- Supervisor
- Teaching
- Housing
- PG Dip
- Gaining
- Dissertation
- MA
- Community Development
- Development
Course programme
This course consists of five core modules, one core field placement module, and one option module. Opportunities exist to exit with a PG Dip, gaining the professional qualification at this stage, or complete the dissertation for a full MA.
Core modules include:
Issues of Health and Well-being - introduces key concepts of health and well-being and the context of youth work and community development
Theory and Practice of Community Development - introduces key concepts in relation to practice, policy and the national occupation standards
Anti-oppressive Practice - analyses concepts of oppression, discrimination and inequality and develops effective anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory practice
Health and Social Research Methods - introduces strategies and methods of social science research commonly used in social and healthcare settings
Field Practice - is practice - based (544 hours in total) and provides you with the opportunity to further develop your experience and understanding of the role of the informal educator at EQSB / JNC professional range in an adult and community work setting different to your usual workplace (120 hours), and a further 424 hours, mainly with young people, usually in your own place of work.
Management of Services and People - increases self-confidence and performance as a manager of people and projects within a youth work and community development environment
Plus choose one module from a range of specialist modules, depending on your specific career interests:
Mental Health
Contemporary Social Issues
Global Issues in Youth and Community Development
Managing Race and Diversity
The Negotiated Module - allows you to formulate, present and implement an individual proposal in an area of professional relevance and interest
Please contact us for option module descriptions and further information.
Dissertation - students wishing to achieve a masters will choose a health related topic identified in discussion with academic staff
Teaching and assessmentAll core modules and most optional modules are launched during one of two block teaching weeks held each year, usually in October and January). Attendance at launch days is compulsory. These are supported by a wide variety of written material, individual and organisational tasks.
You are required to engage in a number of online seminars in each module, and you are required to identify a supervisor who will primarily support your field practice, but may also provide a dialogue partner to discuss wider issues arising from the course. You will complete a minimum of 600 hours of field practice, of which 450 hours will be based in your own workplace, paid or voluntary, and 150 hours must be outside of your employing agency.
Through flexible distance learning, you will engage in a supportive learning community.
Assessment is usually by written assignment of 4,000 words per 15-credit module. Field practice assessment requires written evidence, assignments and reports of competence from the supervisor.
Teaching contact hoursThis course is taught via distance learning. Compulsory attendance, when there are direct contact hours with staff, is for two block teaching weeks per year when teaching is timetabled for seven hours each day, and when the dissertation is launched.
Following each block week tutors teach via module guides and their integral activities, directed reading, e-seminars or on line action learning sets. Typically this means there is weekly tutor contact via written interventions in the seminars and oral interventions in the sets which are normally for student groups of between six and sixteen students. Personal tutorials and dissertation supervision are either conducted by telephone, or face to face for students studying full time and based in or near Leicester. Contact hours per week depend on the teaching method used, whether students are studying full or part time and which modules they are studying. The majority of the learning is via personal study - typically six to eight hours studying and revising in your own time each week for part time students (more for full time students), including substantial guided study using module guides, directed readings, online activities, etc. Each student is assigned a practice tutor who will monitor their practice development and meet via telephone or skype at least four times with the student and supervisor .over the duration of their assessed practice.
Additional information
Youth Work, Health and Community Development MA/PG Dip