UDCMDVLR - BSc Community Development and Leadership

The Community Development and Leadership course is an innovative and intellectually challenging response to a paradigm shift from a needs-based model, through a market-based model of public service provision, to a three-sector model of community-based action. The course therefore combines the study of elements of the subjects of social policy and administration (welfare/needs-based model) and general business and management (management of supply and demand of public and voluntary sector services) as well as the re-emergent areas of community work and development, incorporating National Occupational Standards for Community Development Work.

The course makes wide use of the local environment; particularly through contact with local employers and initiatives within the voluntary, community and public sectors. Throughout the course students are invited to reflect on real life practice as well as case studies and students benefit from the Endorsement from the England Standards Board. Students are encouraged to use a wide range of on-line and media resources and to make use of the ample electronic sources within the University Library.

1. To offer a course relevant to a range of careers in the area of voluntary and community sector management as well as a range of partnerships with statutory and/or private organisations.
2. To facilitate the acquisition of a range of social, cultural and management theories and discourses relating to issues of policy, practice and action affecting communities.
3. To enable students to identify and communicate effectively public policy and public sector management issues arising out of political, economic, historical, cultural, social and technological changes.
4. To enable students to understand the ethical dimensions of and tensions inherent in public (global and local) policy making and implementation.
5. To enable students to engage in progressively rigorous comparative theoretical analysis.
6. To facilitate the development of knowledge, understanding and practical skills involved in social investigation and/or community project development, apply their learning by choosing appropriate qualitative and quantitative research and project design and data collection methods.
7. To enable students to make dispassionate use of data as evidence in assessing priorities, seeking funding bids and quality assurance processes.
8. To facilitate the ability of students to plan and execute an independent, in-depth piece of work.
9. To enable students to become confident ICT users.
10. To enable students to apply and reflect on their learning during work placements and/or voluntary work in the context of cultural diversity and social exclusion, and hence engage in self-evaluation.

• The following learning outcomes incorporate and depend on systematic understanding of the key aspects of the knowledge base of Community Development and Leadership, including a coherent and detailed knowledge of some specialist areas in depth.
On successful completion of this course students will be able to:

1. deploy accurately established techniques of analysis and enquiry within Community Development and Leadership
2. devise and sustain arguments, and/or to solve problems, using ideas and techniques, some of which are at the forefront of Community Development and Leadership
3. describe and comment upon particular aspects of current research, or equivalent advanced scholarship, in Community Development and Leadership, recognising the uncertainty, ambiguity and limits of knowledge;
4. manage their own learning, and to make use of scholarly reviews and primary sources (for example, refereed research articles and/or original materials appropriate to Community Development and Leadership);
5. apply the methods and techniques that they have learned to review, consolidate, extend and apply their knowledge and understanding, and to initiate and carry out projects;
6. critically evaluate arguments, assumptions, abstract concepts and data (that may be incomplete), to make judgements, and to frame appropriate questions to achieve a solution - or identify a range of solutions - to a problem;
7. communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialist and non-specialist audiences;
8. exercise initiative and personal responsibility, including decision-making in complex and unpredictable contexts;
9. undertake appropriate further training of a professional or equivalent nature.

1. deploy accurately established techniques of analysis and enquiry within Community Development and Leadership:

• SS4002 Introduction to Applied Social Anthropology (I)
• SS4003 Principles of Community Work (I)
• SS4004 Researching Culture and Community (P)
• SS5004 Leadership and Organisations (P)
• SS6001 Development and Social Enterprise (A)
• SS6P01 CDL Dissertation (A)

2. devise and sustain arguments, and/or to solve problems, using ideas and techniques, some of which are at the forefront of Community Development and Leadership:

• SS4001 Individual Development and Community Organising (I)
• SS4002 Introduction to Applied Social Anthropology (I)
• SS5004 Leadership and Organisations (P)
• SS5002 Human Rights, Social Justice and Diversity (P)
• SS6055 Political Sociology (P)
• SS6P01 CDL Dissertation (A)
• SS6001 Development and Social Enterprise (A)

3. describe and comment upon particular aspects of current research, or equivalent advanced scholarship, in Community Development and Leadership, recognising the uncertainty, ambiguity and limits of knowledge:

• SS4000 Cultures, Identity and Difference (I)
• SS4002 Introduction to Applied Social Anthropology (I)
• SS4003 Principles of Community Work (I)
• SS4004 Researching Culture and Community (A)
• SS5002 Human Rights, Social Justice and Diversity (P)
• SS5051 Community, Culture and Change (P)
• SS6P01 CDL Dissertation (A)

4. manage their own learning, and to make use of scholarly reviews and primary sources (for example, refereed research articles and/or original materials appropriate to Community Development and Leadership):

• SS4000 Cultures, Identity and Difference (I)
• SS4001 Individual Development and Community Organising (I)
• SS4002 Introduction to Applied Social Anthropology (I)
• SS4004 Researching Culture and Community (I)
• SS5002 Human Rights, Social Justice and Diversity (P)
• SS5055 The Developing Student: Self-Reflection and Learning (P)
• SS6P01 CDL Dissertation (A)
• SS6W00 CDL Work Placement (A)

5. apply the methods and techniques that they have learned to review, consolidate, extend and apply their knowledge and understanding, and to initiate and carry out projects:

• SS4001 Individual Development and Community Organising (I)
• SS4002 Introduction to Applied Social Anthropology (I)
• SS4004 Researching Culture and Community (P)
• SS5059 Decision Making and the Voluntary Sector (P)
• SS6001 Development and Social Enterprise (A)
• SS6054 Human Rights and Conflict (P)
• SS6P01 CDL Dissertation (A)
• SS6W00 CDL Work Placement (A)

6. critically evaluate arguments, assumptions, abstract concepts and data (that may be incomplete), to make judgements, and to frame appropriate questions to achieve a solution - or identify a range of solutions - to a problem:

• SS4001 Individual Development and Community Organising (I)
• SS4003 Principles of Community Work (I)
• SS5002 Human Rights, Social Justice and Diversity (P)
• SS5004 Leadership and Organisations (P)
• SS5059 Decision Making and the Voluntary Sector (P)
• SS6001 Development and Social Enterprise (A)
• SS6050 Current Issues in Disability (A)
• SS6058 Housing Issues and Housing Solutions (I)
• SS6P01 CDL Dissertation (A)

7. communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialist and non-specialist audiences:

• SS4002 Introduction to Applied Social Anthropology (I)
• SS4001 Individual Development and Community Organising (I)
• SS5004 Leadership and Organisations (P)
• SS5010A Gender, Ethnicity and Youth Identities (P)
• SS6P01 CDL Dissertation (A)
• SS6W00 CDL Work Placement (A)

8. exercise initiative and personal responsibility, including decision-making in complex and unpredictable contexts:

• SS4003 Principles of Community Work (I)
• SS4001 Individual Development and Community Organising (I)
• SS5004 Leadership and Organisations (P)
• SS5059 Decision Making and the Voluntary Sector (P)
• SS6001 Development and Social Enterprise (A)
• SS6W00 CDL Work Placement (A)
• SS6058 Housing Issues and Housing Solutions (A)

9. undertake appropriate further training of a professional or equivalent nature:

• SS4000 Cultures, Identity and Difference (I)
• SS4001 Individual Development and Community Organising (I)
• SS4004 Researching Culture and Community (P)
• SS5004 Leadership and Organisations (P)
• SS5060 Employability in the Community Sector (P)
• SS6P01 CDL Dissertation (A)

Youth and Community work

http://www.qaa.ac.uk/Publications/InformationAndGuidance/Documents/YouthandCommunity09.pdf

Assessment throughout the course links theory with practice. Students are encouraged to reflect on the social environment and on their own progress and achievements. This includes Learning Logs, Case Studies, Employment Related Tasks, Essays, Presentations and Reports. In the final year students focus on the specific interests they have developed in the first two years and, as such, have increased control over the topics of their assignments.

A process of development planning is embedded in the course design where case studies and other materials are used to reflect on the implications for real-life situations and organisations.

This includes visits to organisations in the field as well as speakers from a variety of organisations. It enables students to reflect on their learning, develop planning skills and relate their learning to their professional development and future learning activities.

In the 3rd year students undertake a work placement in a relevant organisation, design and carry out a piece a relevant research project and draw up plans for a social enterprise.

University Regulation 3.1.5 specifies that:
‘All undergraduate courses shall be based on a teaching year comprising 30 weeks of formal scheduled teaching augmented, where appropriate, by a summer studies period.’

For the purposes of the level-4 January entry this will read:
‘All undergraduate courses shall be based on a teaching year comprising 24 weeks of formal scheduled teaching augmented, where appropriate, by a summer studies period.’

N/A

Reflective learning and personal development are core to the values and principles of Community Development. As such personal development planning and reflective learning, reflective practices, target setting, review and self-assessment are embedded throughout the course. A range of activities ask students to apply these to themselves, their personal aspirations, their work/volunteering experience, and future work in a community context. Opportunities for collaborative learning are designed to enable students to progress from being a passive to an active and reflective learner in control of own learning and to support others in making developmental decisions and choices.

We are in contact with our Employers from our Employers' Forum and student placements arranged through this. These student placements have sometimes led to paid employment. Students are encouraged to access careers advice as well as offering formal arrangements in the course for Careers Services to give presentations to students and contribute to appropriate modules. A number of the modules, for example the Work Placement, Leadership and Organisations, and Development and Social Enterprise require students to have contact with employers and to produce career specific work.

England Standards Board.
National Council for Voluntary Organisations
Employers' Forum for ICCD

The degree is endorsed by the Endorsement and Quality Standards Board as a professional qualification for community development work. It is also validated by the Chartered Institute of Housing.

This expanding field of careers incorporates managers or researchers. Job titles might include community centre manager, project officer, fundraising manager, and volunteer co-ordinator.

Related careers are in housing, health, education, regeneration, crime reduction, in community trusts and charitable organisations, local councils and national institutions and non-government organisations (NGOs).

Some students progress to postgraduate study.

In addition to the University's standard entry requirements, you should have:

• English Language GCSE at grade C or above (or equivalent) and
• at least 280 UCAS points from three or more A levels (eg BBC) or;
• 320 UCAS points from a BTEC National (eg DDM) or;
• a Level 3 Advanced Diploma (or equivalent)

All applicants must be able to demonstrate proficiency in the English language. Applicants who require a Tier 4 student visa may need to provide a Secure English Language Test (SELT) such as Academic IELTS. For more information about English qualifications please see our English language requirements.

Applications are welcome from mature students with appropriate Access/preparatory courses or relevant work experience.

We also welcome those without formal qualifications who can show enthusiasm, commitment, and the ability to benefit from higher education.

If you don’t have traditional qualifications or can’t meet the entry requirements for this undergraduate degree, you may still be able to gain entry by completing the BSc Community Development and Youth Extended Degree (including Foundation Year).