Community/Youth Studies

Community/youth studies courses focus on helping you develop skills that are essential for working with young people or adults in the community.

Over the course of your degree you develop a wide mix of subject-specific and technical skills, you should consider these skills developed on your course as well as through your other activities, such as paid work, volunteering, family responsibilities, sport, membership of societies, leadership roles, etc. Think about how these can be used as evidence of your skills and personal attributes. Then you can start to market and sell who you really are, identify what you may be lacking and consider how to improve your profile.

Prospects

A 2010 HESA destination survery of 2009 community/youth studies graduates shows that six months after graduation 65% had found employment. More than half of these gain employment in social, welfare and informal education. Professions include youth work, community work, youth justice, drugs services, education, welfare rights, housing, health and trainee probation. Many jobs are project based such as anti-poverty initiatives, education, homelessness, drugs projects, sexual health initiatives, advisory work, community arts, and community regeneration projects. Some graduates also enter the voluntary sector and government service.

If your degree does not include recognised qualifications and you want to go into youth or community work, you will need to study towards the qualification on a part-time basis while you are working. This is especially true if you want to progress to senior levels.

Where are the jobs?

Employers of graduates in community/youth studies include local authority youth services, education departments, voluntary organisations, churches and other community-based groups.

For more detailed information about the range of options check out the following employment areas:

• Education - covering schools, further and higher education;
• Government and public administration- covering local government, the civil service and arrangements in the different constituent parts of the UK;
• Charity and development work - looking at the expanding opportunities in this sector and how to make the most of them.

Jobs directly related to your degree

• Community development worker
• Youth worker
• Community education officer
• Careers adviser/personal adviser
• Advice worker
• Race relations officer

Jobs where your degree would be useful

• Health promotion specialist
• Social worker
• Learning mentor
• Secondary school teacher

Although some of the jobs listed here might not be first jobs for many graduates, they are among the many realistic possibilities with your degree, provided you can demonstrate you have the attributes employers are looking for. Bear in mind that it's not just your degree discipline that determines your options. Remember that many graduate vacancies don't specify particular degree disciplines, so don't restrict your thinking to the jobs listed here.

You can find more about the skills you develop during your course, the jobs listed above, plus case studies and where to find these jobs at Prospects.

Included with the permission of AGCAS. For the latest version of this publication, see www.prospects.ac.uk. For permission to reproduce, contact copyright@agcas.org.uk