Course summary

The foundation year offers an innovative new pathway into your degree. It is the first part of a four-year degree programme. It provides an alternative route for those unable to meet the traditional entry requirements for a three-year degree. It will prepare you for your degree studies in a supportive and stimulating learning environment. You will begin with an exploration of education and society, before moving onto consider including identity, being human and the digital world. Over the course of the year, you will build the skills and experience to prepare you for your chosen degree. Counselling Studies and Working with Children, Young People and Families is a popular course combination involving the study of two different disciplines to give students the knowledge and understanding needed for a range of career opportunities. Why study this course?

• Students on the Counselling Studies and Working with Children, Young People and Families programme gain an in-depth understanding of counselling theory and its application, along with the acquisition of a range of communication skills.

• Whilst it must be emphasised that this course does not provide a professional counselling training, and that graduates will not be qualified as counsellors, it does provide an excellent basis for postgraduate training as a counsellor or psychotherapist.

• The course is also designed to give students a ‘rounded’ understanding of work with children, young people and families through interdisciplinary study, drawing on a number of social science traditions in social policy, sociology and politics – all studied in an applied way

• The programme will develop graduates who are familiar with and able to critically analyse concepts around professional judgement and risk in working ethically with others

• Students will learn how to negotiate the relationship between academic theory and their understanding of workplace settings and their roles within these settings