Program Overview

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Youth Work & Community Practice

BA (Hons)

Attendance

• Full-time
• Part-time

Campus

• Burnley Campus

Start

• September 2025

Duration

• 3 years

UCAS Code

• L530

Delivery

• In-person

Foundation year available

This professionally validated course will leave you a qualified, experienced, and employable youth and community worker.

Course Description

Our Youth Work and Community Practice course is exciting and innovative. It is professionally validated by the National Youth Agency, which means it leads to Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) recognition.

When you successfully complete the course, you will become a JNC-qualified Professional Youth Work and Community Practice Practitioner.

In addition to the JNC professional qualification, we offer the opportunity to gain additional qualifications throughout the course. These may include the following:

• First aid at work
• Sports coaching qualifications
• Mentoring
• Counselling skills
• Child sexual exploitation

Our professional practice placement modules, which are offered throughout the three years of study, will give you the opportunity to work with young people in a range of settings, including schools, youth centres, outdoors, or on a one-to-one basis.

We also work closely with the team from the Centre for Volunteering and Community Leadership (CVCL), who offer placements and opportunities in over 300 voluntary sector organisations.

You will have the opportunity to study modules relating to young people in sport, or young people’s mental health, in addition to core modules in Youth Work and Community Practice, making it a relevant and modern course.

The course is also directly linked to the Journal of Community Research, which means you will have the opportunity to submit a research paper to this peer-reviewed journal.

First-year students can also take part in a residential trip to the Coldwell Activity Centre near Burnley. This offers a fun way to bond, learn from each other, and build outdoor skills for working with young people.

Why Study with Us

• On completion of this degree, you’ll be a fully qualified youth worker with a nationally recognised professional qualification.
• This course has been carefully developed by youth work employers and professionals to ensure students are fully prepared for youth work employment after graduation.
• Our excellent industry links will give you placement opportunities that will support your career aspirations.

What You'll Do

• You'll be taught by an experienced team with backgrounds in youth work or community practice. They cover expertise in youth work, justice, mentoring, mental health, and more.
• In addition to your degree, you will also receive a CPD award in safeguarding, a CPD award in writing risk assessments, a first aid at work qualification, and will have the opportunity to complete an ILM in Mentoring.
• You'll learn in a highly practical environment with useful assessments. You'll take part in placements in youth work or community practice, with assessments that will impact their organisational policy and practice.

Modules

Year 1

• Assessed Professional Practice in Youth Work – 1
• Policy, Practice and Legislation
• Safeguarding & Child Protection
• Communication in Practice
• Youth Dialogue
• Exploring Modern Youth Work

Year 2

• Assessed Professional Practice in Youth Work - 2
• Contemporary Issues for Young People
• Theory and Practice of Youth Work
• Psychology of Youth & Community
• Youth Development
• Researching with Children and Young People

Year 3

• Assessed Professional Practice in Youth Work – 3
• Dissertation
• Management in Youth Work and Community Practice
• Equality, Diversity and Anti-Oppressive Practice

Accreditations

• Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC)

This course is professionally accredited by the JNC. They recognise youth and community workers' qualifications which have been professionally approved by the Education Training Standards (ETS) Committee of the National Youth Agency. They endorse youth support worker qualifications and have a process of professional validation for higher education programmes.

Future Careers in Youth Work

After completing this course, you will be able to move directly into a wide range of careers, including, but not limited to:

• Youth work
• Teaching assistant
• Teaching (with the addition of a PGCE)
• Community activism
• Local charity work
• Housing association work
• Working with young offenders
• Social care
• Social work (with additional qualifications)
• Sports coaching
• Sports development
• Learning support
• Community policing

Academic Expertise

• Jenny Foster
• Paul Hogan
• Dr Chinyere Ajayi
• Dr Yasmeen Ali

Entry Requirements

• UCAS: 96-112 points at A2
• BTEC Extended Diploma: MMM-DMM
• BTEC Diploma: DD-DD
• Pass Access Course 96-112 UCAS points
• International Baccalaureate Diploma: Pass including 96-112 points from Higher Level Subjects
• T Level: P (C+) - M
• IELTS: 6.0 with no Component lower than 5.5
• GCSE's: 5 at grade C/4 including Maths and English or equivalent
• A satisfactory Criminal records declaration (DBS/Disclosure Scotland) is required for this course

Fees and Funding

• UK: £9,535 per year (full-time), £1,587 per 20 credits (part-time)
• International: £17,325 per year (full-time)

Scholarships and Bursaries

• Care Leaver Bursary
• Estranged student support
• Dependants Bursary
• Financial support package

Industry Links

The Youth Work and Community Practice course is linked to over three hundred community partners across the country. This means you will have the opportunity to complete placements in areas that are exciting and interesting.

The Course Leader is engaged in innovative research with young people and is a member of our Centre for Young People’s Participation. The course team are all members of the Professional Association of Lecturers in Youth and Community Work and active members of the National Council of Voluntary Organisations. Our links are current and wide-ranging and mean you will be being taught by tutors with access to the latest in policy developments and research.

The programme will give you a wealth of experience and knowledge, leaving you prepared for employment on graduation.

Learning and Assessment

The learning environment will be very practical, with assessments created to be as practical and useful as possible. You will undertake placements in youth work or community practice throughout your course. You will also be expected to complete assessments which will affect policy and practice in those organisations.

All the course team have come from youth work or community practice backgrounds and have experience in:

• Youth work
• Youth justice
• Child sexual exploitation
• International community work
• Leadership
• Action research
• Mentoring
• Homelessness
• Environmentalism
• Mental health
• Sports development

The Course Leader is Jenny Lamb, whose research interest lies with young people who are NEET (not in education, employment or training).

You will also be taught by Dr Ridwanah Gurjee, who is a leading expert on the impact of mentoring, and Yasmeen Ali, who has extensive experience running international youth leadership conferences and whose research on the impact of peer-to-peer leadership has been published recently.