- An undergraduate course
in
Childhood and Youth.
Leading work with young people in practice
- On this page
| Course facts | |
|---|---|
| About this course: | |
| Course code | E218 |
| Credits | 60 |
| OU Level | 2 |
| SCQF level | 8 |
| FHEQ level | 5 |
| Course work includes: | |
| 8 Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) | |
| End-of-module assessment | |
| No residential school | |
This course explores how you can use your practical experiences, and the knowledge you have gained from your Level 1 study, to develop the practical and analytical skills needed to lead and manage work with young people. In addition, you’ll be encouraged to take a critical and reflective approach towards your work and your continuing professional development. You must meet the minimum requirement of five hours face-to-face contact with young people per week in an appropriate setting; undertake work in an additional work-based learning setting; obtain your organisation’s permission to do work-based learning; and attend a face-to-face day school (or online alternative learning experience).
Modules at Level 2 assume that you are suitably prepared for study at this level. If you want to take a single module to satisfy your career development needs or pursue particular interests, you don’t need to start at Level 1 but you do need to have adequately prepared yourself for OU study in some other way. Check with our Student Registration & Enquiry Service to make sure that you are sufficiently prepared.
Register for the course
What you will study
Through the printed Study Guide and supporting resources such as the Working With Young People (WWYP) and course websites, you’ll be developing the skills and understanding needed to lead work effectively with young people.
The course focuses on developing effective leadership and management practices in working with young people. It will:
- enable you to integrate concepts and ideas of leading work with young people into your own practice
- help you to develop your critical understanding of anti-oppressive practices into your work and take a pro-active approach to your work in this area
- assist you in developing and applying skills and approaches to lead work with young people in a range of contexts
- assist you in developing as a critical reflective practitioner
- support you in reflecting on and planning for your further professional development.
Day school
You’ll also attend a compulsory face-to-face Day School which provides an opportunity for experiential learning on aspects of leading and managing work with young people. There will be an alternative learning experience (ALE) if you are unable to attend, perhaps because of mobility problems, or geographical location. This alternative takes place online. If you are unable to attend either the Day School or take part in the ALE you will not be able to pass the course.
You will learn
You’ll use examples from your own practical work with leading and managing work with young people, plan and undertake a project and undertake an additional work-based learning experience in another setting from your regular work-place setting. You’ll be encouraged to become a more critical reflective practitioner. You’ll also learn how to compare and contrast different practices of leading work with young people and present evidence of your professional competence for assessment. You’ll develop your online communication skills to support your own learning.
Vocational relevance
This course is a compulsory module in our Foundation Degree and Diploma of Higher Education in Working with Young People and in our BA (Hons) Youth Work. This course is for you if you are a practitioner currently working with young people to support their informal learning. The course defines ‘work with young people’ as professional interventions where participation is voluntary and the aims are to do with informal education. Such work can be within a voluntary or a statutory setting, but students must be attached to a suitable organisation (see Entry below).
For example, you might be involved in:
- running a youth club or centre
- outreach or detached work with young people
- working in a community-based group that works with young people on social and personal development
- advising young people on health or careers
- supporting the informal learning of young people be that outside or within a formal education setting such as a school or college
- working with a group of Scouts or Guides.
Entry
This is a Level 2 course and you need to have a good knowledge of the subject area, obtained either through Level 1 study with the OU, or by doing equivalent work at another university.
Before starting this course you are strongly advised to have studied one of the following combinations of courses:
- either Working with young people: an introduction (E108) available from October 2013 followed by Introduction to working with young people in practice (E118)
- or Introduction to working with young people (E131) (now discontinued) or the supported APEL version EZL131, followed by Introduction to working with young people in practice (E118) and Leading work with young people (E132) or the supported APEL version EZL132
The study materials from this course refer back to aspects of the study materials from Leading work with young people (E132).
As this is a course leading to a professional validation, you need to meet the requirements set out by the National Youth Agency and equivalent bodies in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. These requirements state that you need to be in direct practice with young people for a total of 270 hours (paid or unpaid) over the foundation degree and for a total of 444 hours if you go on to complete the honours degree.
You will have completed 135 of these hours at Level 1 and you need to complete a further 135 hours on this course at Level 2. This means working at least 5 hours a week in direct work with young people and an additional 3 hours per week planning and evaluating your work with young people. Additionally, for the professional qualification, you will need to demonstrate that you have practised in two workplaces, with at least 90 hours at Level 2 being in the second setting. These 90 hours will be counted as part of your Level 2 total of 135. You can meet this requirement in a range of ways – either by moving work setting completely, by working in two settings simultaneously or by moving for a short period to an alternative setting.
If you do not have the same contact time with young people each week, this figure can be treated as an average. However, the contact must be on a regular rather than a sporadic basis i.e. 135 hours over the duration of the course, but a minimum of 17 hours each month.
You will also need to:
- be working within an organisation in a suitable setting
- have support from your employer for your participation in the course (see ‘Support from your workplace’ below)
- have successfully passed through recruitment and induction processes within your organisation
- have successfully completed all appropriate vetting procedures for the country in which you are working (e.g. Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check in England). It is the responsibility of you and your employer to ensure you meet these requirements, and not that of the OU. You should contact the relevant agency that deals with criminal records disclosure in your country for more information if you are in doubt about your eligibility, or to find out more
- have access to, or be able to obtain access to, the types of work required by the course. This work must enable you to develop leadership and management skills, undertake a new and innovative piece of work, develop a project and work in an alternative setting from your regular practice
- for each of your regular work and alternative work-based learning experience you must secure a person, or persons to take on the roles of: confirming that your evidence is authentic; observing your practice on one occasion; and providing supportive professional supervision. Your observer/supervisor should be professionally qualified (Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) or equivalent) and have at least two years’ post-qualifying experience.
Further details of the requirements for studying E218 are contained in the Work-based Learning (WBL) Handbook available in electronic format on the WWYP website for existing students, or alternatively from the Qualification team on (01908) 653275. You will receive a printed copy of the WBL Handbook in the first mailing of study materials.
If you are unsure whether your current practical work with young people meets the requirements, then please contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.
Outside the UK
The course is only available in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, the Republic of Ireland and British Forces Post Office (BFPO) addresses outside the UK.
Preparatory work
This course will assume you have knowledge of working with young people that is equivalent to successful Level 1 study described in Entry above.
Before you start this course, you may find it helpful to collect together your E108 (or E131), E118 and E132 assignments and your work on significant activities which may be contained in any prior learning journals and/or notebooks.
If you have not studied E132 for this qualification but have gained entry through showing equivalent learning, then you will need to familiarise yourself with the E132 materials. Specific extracts from the E132 materials are referred to throughout this course. If you have bypassed E132 and begin your studies with this course you will be required to purchase the E132 materials in pack format. Details of how to do this will be in the first mailing of materials for this course.
In addition, it would be helpful to ensure that you are confident using the internet and basic office applications such as word processing.
Regulations
As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the Module Regulations and the Student Regulations which are available on our Essential documents website.
If you have a disability
You will need to make use of a personal computer and the internet. The study materials are available in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). This includes the Study Guide materials which will be available on the course website. The Study Guide is readable with screen readers and in a form such that where tables within text are produced they can be enlarged. Some of the other Adobe PDF components may not be available or fully accessible. The printed materials are available in a loose-leafed page format. Other alternative formats of the study materials may be available in the future. Our Services for disabled students website has the latest information about availability.
If you have particular study requirements please tell us as soon as possible, as some of our support services may take several weeks to arrange. Visit our Services for disabled students website for more information, including:
- help to determine your study requirements and how to request the support that you need
- Disabled Students' Allowances (DSAs)
- using a computer for OU study
- equipment and other support services that we offer
- examination arrangements
- how to contact us for advice and support both before you register and while you are studying.
Study materials
What's included
A printed study guide, printed supplementary materials, website and a set of electronic course resources.
You will need
This course makes extensive use of the study materials from Leading work with young people (E132). You will therefore also have to purchase or borrow the E132 course Study Guides and Reader.
Computing requirements
You will need a computer with internet access to study this course as it includes online activities, which you can access using a web browser.
- If you have purchased a new desktop or laptop computer since 2007 you should have no problems completing the online activities.
- If you’ve got a netbook, tablet or other mobile computing device check our Technical requirements section.
- If you use an Apple Mac you will need OS X 10.6 or later.
You can also visit the Technical requirements section for further computing information including the details of the support we provide.
Teaching and assessment
Support from your tutor
You will be allocated to a tutor who will give you advice and guidance on the study materials and will mark and comment on your written work. Your tutor is particularly concerned with helping you with your study methods and providing feedback on your assignments. You will be expected to communicate with your tutor and may have the opportunity to meet him/her at a number of face-to-face tutorials that you are strongly recommended to attend where they are available. Where tutorials are held, and whether they are face to face or delivered over the phone or electronically, depends on the distribution of students taking each course.
You will also be able to gain support from other students on the course through the moderated online forums. You will have a tutor-group forum, moderated by your own tutor and a national student forum. There will also be a forum on professional issues where you can seek professional advice and discuss general issues relevant to the sector. In addition, the WWYP website will give you the opportunity to benefit from updates about changes to relevant policy and/or the requirements for the different qualifications in working with young people and youth work.
Contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service if you want to know more about study with The Open University before you register.
Support from your workplace
Since this course is a work-based learning course, you will need the support of your regular workplace and from the organisation where you intend to undertake your additional work-based learning experience. In particular you will need:
- permission to use your work activities as part of the course
- a JNC qualified (or equivalent) person to act as a supervisor to help you reflect on your work-based learning: one person for your regular and one person for your additional work based learning setting
- a JNC qualified (or equivalent) person who can undertake one observation of your face-to-face work in leading work with young people
- an appropriate person who can confirm that the evidence that you select from your workplace activities exists and relates to your work.
Details of just what these roles are and an explanation of appropriate qualifications and experience are contained in our Work-based Learning Handbook (WBL). You may find that one person within your regular workplace and another person within your additional work-based learning setting is able to take on all of these roles, simplifying your support network. Alternatively, if you are not able to find an appropriate person from within your own workplace to take on one or more of these roles, then you are encouraged to find an alternative from another organisation. Further guidance is available in the WBL Handbook and a list of employers who may be able to help you will be available on the WWYP website (contact the Qualifications team on (01908) 653275 for further information if required).
It is important to check with your employer that this support is available in principle before you register.
Assessment
The assessment details for this course can be found in the facts box above.
You must submit your tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) on paper.
It is also a requirement that you attend either a face-to-face day school or take part in the online alternative learning experience instead. You will not be able to pass the course without satisfying this requirement.
As part of your assignments, you will also be required to identify evidence from your practice to back up your reflections on your practice. You will be shown how to use evidence effectively and efficiently, avoiding excessive evidence gathering.
Future availability
The details given here are for the course that starts in October 2013. We expect it to be available once a year.
Students also studied
Students who studied this course also studied at some time:
How to register
Unfortunately, we are unable to accept online registrations for this course. Instead, please read the Entry section of this course description and contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.
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Distance learning
The Open University is the world’s leading provider of flexible, high quality distance learning. Unlike other universities we are not campus based. You will study in a flexible way that works for you whether you’re at home, at work or on the move. As an OU student you’ll be supported throughout your studies – your tutor or study adviser will guide and advise you, offer detailed feedback on your assignments, and help with any study issues. Tuition might be in face-to-face groups, via online tutorials, or by phone.
For more information read Distance learning explained.
Undergraduate
| Course facts | |
|---|---|
| About this course: | |
| Course code | E218 |
| Credits | 60 |
| OU Level | 2 |
| SCQF level | 8 |
| FHEQ level | 5 |
| Course work includes: | |
| 8 Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) | |
| End-of-module assessment | |
| No residential school | |
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