The first two years of your study will be focused on coverage of core content related to psychological development in childhood and adolescence as well as acquiring research skills and skills in behaviour analysis and intervention. In your final year, you will consider social policy associated with childhood and youth as well as enhancing your skills in behaviour analysis. Year One You will study two 40 credit modules and two 20 credit modules in this year. Your 40 credit modules will introduce you to ethical and practical issues in doing research with children and young people as well as giving you the opportunity to acquire research skills in this area. You will also cover theoretical approaches to child development (e.g. Piaget, Vygotsky) and research on language development, attachment, peer relations, and cognitive development. Also in these modules you will be introduced to the principles of applied behaviour analysis and will begin to understand how children’s behaviour can be explained and modified by reinforcement and punishment. Your 20 credit modules will provide you with an overview of educational policy and practice as applied to children and young people as well as an introduction to criminological theory and research necessary for understanding youth crime and youth justice. Year Two You will study two 40 credit modules and two 20credit modules in this year. Your 40 credit modules will provide more in-depth coverage of the psychological issues associated with development. This module will include issues around educational achievement, bullying, biological influences on development, sociocultural and dynamic systems approaches to development and atypical development (e.g. autism). You will also further enhance your research skills when it comes to working with children and young people and will develop additional skills in applied behaviour analysis to consider the way that multiple factors can influence behaviour and how these can be modified using principles of reinforcement. Your 20 credit modules will introduce you to the sociological/social policy issues associated with children and young people and will allow you to specialise in youth justice or educational policy as an optional strand. Year Three You will study six 20 credit modules in the final year. Four of these are compulsory modules one is an option from a selection of relevant modules in Psychology and the final an option in either your Education or Youth Justice strand.

By the time you graduate, you will have built a strong foundation for a range of professions. Since 2010, all professional youth workers need a degree qualification. This award is also suitable to access an accredited postgraduate training course, and provides the necessary knowledge and skills to train for a career in applied behaviour analysis, social work, youth justice and probation services, teaching, or therapeutic play. However you will also have acquired vital skills in behaviour analysis which will help if you are considering work in school or community settings managing challenging behaviour or working with those who have learning disabilities or autism. The BSc (Hons) Childhood and Youth course provides you with the opportunities to acquire a range of transferable skills which employers really rate; including project management, communication and negotiation skills, time management and a flexible and analytical approach to problem solving. The importance of these skills is illustrated in our high rates for employability; the most recent Graduate Destinations Survey indicated that 96% of our psychology graduates were in employment or further study within six months of graduation. (Students from the Childhood and Youth course are counted in psychology for the Graduate Destinations Survey). Work/study placements Students have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience as research assistants in the first year of the course while the second year module in applied psychology provides opportunities to reflect on skills developed during paid or voluntary placements. Support in finding placements is provided through the University’s GlamEdge programme and students on this course are active participants in the Passport to Employability scheme run by GlamEdge (for more details on this scheme see the GlamEdge pages). You also have the opportunity to complete the second year of your course studying abroad at one of our partner institutions, for example in the United States, Sweden, France or Australia.