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Studying our Childhood and Youth Studies BA (Hons) course will equip you with the in-depth skills and expertise for a rewarding career working with children, young people, families and communities. If you are stepping up to Higher Education with a Foundation year you will study a range of contemporary social issues and learn to examine these through a sociological lens. You will also be supported to develop skills that will underpin your studies and your work and personal development. In year one, you will build a solid understanding of human development and how this can be used for assessment, planning and intervention with children, young people and their families in our Development in Childhood and Youth unit. If you are passionate about working with children, young people and families, our Narratives of Childhood and Youth unit draws on different theoretical perspectives to explore the ways in which children and young people’s social and learning worlds are experienced by them and constructed, surveyed and regulated by adults. In addition, our unit in Relationship Based Practice will introduce crucial skills for professional practice that will enable you to predict, explain and assess situations, behaviour and human needs providing a rationale for intervention. In your second year, our Perceptions and Discourses of Childhood and Digital Childhoods units will develop some of the issues introduced in Narratives of Childhood in your first year and looks at some of the risks and opportunities presented by today’s on and offline worlds.

You will also have the opportunity to undertake a range of optional units in your second and third years. In year two, to broaden your perspectives, you can discover the role of race, identity, inequality, ethnicity in a contemporary UK society in our Identity, Inequality and Difference unit. With an intersectional approach, you may also explore how these aspects of identity are interconnected with the issues faced by disabled children, young people and adults in our Disability in Society unit. You may also choose to examine the sociological and psychiatric perspectives on mental health and illness in our Mental Health and Society unit; or if you are interested in studying criminology among youth populations, our Gangs and Serious Youth Violence unit will allow you to explore the nature, extent and impact of this issue and how to respond effectively using policy, strategy and intervention. Alternatively, you can develop a theoretical understanding of addictive behaviours in our Addictions and Society unit such as gambling, gaming, substance misuse, pornography, food and more. Another important area of your study involves protecting and safeguarding children, and this is where our Working Together: Multi-Agency Approaches to Risk and Assessment in Child Welfare unit will expose you to historical and emerging approaches towards inter-agency working in child welfare and the legislation and policy surrounding the field.

This is further developed in Year 3 in our unit called Child Protection and Safeguarding: The Contexts of Vulnerability where you will develop an enhanced knowledge and skills for the complex field of child abuse and neglect by critically analysing child protection policy, practice and initiatives. In your final year, you will also be able to choose from units such as Childhoods in a Global Context where you will critically reflect on the study of childhoods in the UK and internationally to identify how to improve services for vulnerable children, young people and families. Moreover, you may want to specialise in Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Challenging Behaviour in Schooling that will equip you to work in SEN settings. You will also have the opportunity to explore The Lived Experiences of Children and Young People in Diverse Family and Social Circumstances to empathise and support marginalised children and young people; or seek to compare and examine policies and approaches to meet the needs of young people in our Youth Justice: Models and Approaches unit. You can also critically examine theories of violence and types of violent crime to understand the context of Violence in Modern Society. Finally, you will have the choice of completing a SASS Change Maker Project Dissertation or Research Dissertation where you will develop and demonstrate academic and professional skills.

In the project-based dissertation, you will have the opportunity to work with a community-based organisation to deliver a project while building on skills that will support your personal development towards your desired graduate career. If you choose to undertake a research dissertation, this gives you an opportunity to develop a research proposal, consider the ethical implications of your work and conduct an in-depth, focused research enquiry around an area of professional interest. To help you with this, you will study units across the three years of this degree that will build your understanding and skills in research in the field of social sciences. This starts in Year 1 with an Introduction to Research and Social Enquiry and is continued through to Year 2 with our units in Research 1: Collecting Data and Research 2: Exploring Data. Outside of theory and practice, this course also offers a number of units that will support your employability in the field of social sciences. Our unit in Career Planning for Social Scientists will facilitate your career development journey by allowing you to identify your transferrable skills and articulate them in a confident, meaningful and positive manner. Furthermore, you will be able to develop and apply these skills in The Social Sciences at Work, where you will undertake relevant work experience with an organisation to gain an insight into the professional workplace and acquire the desirable knowledge and skills you need going into graduate employment.