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Working with Children, Families and Communities

A profession that is truly rewarding

Key Information

Do you aspire to make a difference in people’s lives? Are you passionate about supporting your community or working with children?

If the answer is yes, then Working with Children, Families and Communities could be the course for you!

This undergraduate pathway provides the preparation you will need to continue your studies in Working with Children, Families, and Communities or an opportunity to apply for Registered Social Work degree.

Key information

Undergraduate course

Duration

  • Foundation (4 Years)
  • First Year (3 Years)

Intakes

  • January
  • September

Location

  • Cambridge
    Chelmsford

Working with Children, Families and Communities Overview

Our undergraduate pathway in Working with Children, Families and Communities has been developed to help prepare you for a career working within this broad sector, for example within education or social care. In this type of profession, it isn’t just about what you learn: it’s also about who you are. You‘ll need qualities such as openness, honesty, fairness, respect, empathy, integrity, sound judgement as well as excellent communication skills.

On the Foundation you’ll study a broad base of transferable knowledge and skills areas, becoming skilled in critical analysis and problem-solving, supporting you to understand how to manage, support and drive forward care services, organisations and communities. You’ll also be introduced to the core skills necessary to succeed in higher education, including thinking critically, researching and referencing appropriately, demonstrating appropriate numeracy and ICT skills.

Pathway progression

Successful completion of this pathway will lead to the award of the following from ARU:

BA (Hons) Working with Children, Families and Communities – Chelmsford Campus

If you are a UK Student or EU settled/pre-settled (EUSS/EUPS) student, upon successful completion of the Foundation Year, you may wish to apply Social Work, for which you’ll need to be successful at interview.

BA (Hons) Social Work

You will be required to pass all modules (120 credits) in order to successfully complete the foundation course, alongside the following requirements, which you will be supported through during your foundation course:

If you are unsuccessful at interview, but have successful passed the year, you can remain on the Working with Children, Families and Communities degree.

Please note that this course progression is available to UK / EU settled/pre-settled students only.

Please see our UK course matrix for entry point, intake and study location information.

 

Course structure

Interactive Learning Skills and Communication (ILSC)

Interactive Learning Skills and Communication (ILSC) will help you to develop your academic, research, communication, and literacy skills in preparation for your undergraduate degree. ILSC covers reading, writing, speaking, and listening and will give you an understanding of institutional culture, practices, norms, and expectations of UK higher education. You will develop transferable skills such as effective communication to support ongoing study, career, and professional development skills.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

Information Communication Technology (ICT) provides you with the practical computer skills needed for university. In this module, you will cover fundamental topics surrounding the use of technology and discuss these together with societal and ethical perspectives. This will allow you to reflect on and discuss the main challenges facing society and consider the implications of your technology use. This module requires no previous technical experience and will introduce you to practical ICT skills that will be needed for academic success across many areas of higher education. By the end, you should have sufficient proficiency in the Microsoft Office productivity suite for planning and producing presentations, using functions, and writing formula to display, formatting and analysing quantitative data, and producing written assignments to a standard appropriate to higher education.

Critical Thinking

This module aims to enable you to participate in and practice independent learning tasks for deeper thought and investigation as needed for Higher Academic pursuits. You will participate in a Socratic Discussion based around Conspiracy Theories and Source Checking to encourage presentation and debating skills. You will be encouraged to invest in strategies that will deepen understanding and interpretation of processes, motives, argument, rationale, credibility, and possibilities which will then be applicable to a range of studies. You will also undertake research, based on an issue related to your degree programme, to review the main points of examining an argument in depth. You will then learn to create a personal response that analyses the content of the issue under study.

Core Maths

Core Maths has been designed to ensure you will have the necessary basic numeracy skills needed for university. Within this module, you will practice various mathematical manipulations and apply these concepts to real-life situations, to indicate the importance and applicability of mathematics to your future degrees. You will study a wide range of core mathematics including arithmetic skills, algebra, solving equations, probability, and basic statistics, all of which will be extremely beneficial for supporting you in your studies.

Ethics

Ethics is all about making decisions based on what you consider to be correct and not correct which is a discipline that is fundamental for students in higher education. Within this module, you will discuss the complexity of ethical theory and will investigate the status of several major ethical theories and claims and consider some practical ethical issues which are impacted by these theories. You will be encouraged to use critical thinking and research to discuss descriptive, normative, and analytic approaches to ethical problems and you will also look at how ethics is applied within the humanities, technology, business, medical and legal contexts.

Psychology

Psychology will teach you about the brain and psychosocial contexts within the humanities and sciences. Within this module, you will look at how research has informed theories about how we think and behave, and how this applies in a variety of contexts. You will learn about the main psychological approaches (cognitive and behavioural; psychodynamic; developmental, social and biological) which will be discussed in relation to current psychological theory. You will also be given an introduction to psychopathology through the discussion of mental health disorders. By applying psychological principles to current events and common situations, you will gain a greater understanding of human actions and motivations.

Intercultural Studies

Intercultural Studies explores differences between cultures and subcultures around the world. Within this module, you will draw from your own cultural experiences as well as learning from other people and lecturer-led case studies. The aim of this module is to increase your awareness and help you to further develop an understanding toward other cultures and value systems. You will gain the skills required to explore and articulate comparisons between different cultural practices, institutions, beliefs, and analytical frameworks.

Preparing for a Career in Caring

Preparing for a Career in Caring has been designed to do just that! This module provides you with a current snapshot of UK health and social care services and will help to prepare you for your future in the health and social care sector, whether this be in nursing, cancer care, mental health, or other caring professions. You will address current events and common situations in the healthcare sector and learn about the structure and types of healthcare provision in the United Kingdom. You will develop knowledge and understanding of the core values of the National Health Service (NHS), the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), and Social Work England (SWE). You will also develop your communication skills, especially as they apply to interviews or professional presentations that you will encounter later in your studies and professional life.


Related links

For more information about intake semesters and campus location please see our course matrices.

Find out the academic entry requirements for our courses listed by country. Unless stated, requirements are standard across all courses.

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