Course Title: Mapping the Youth Sector

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Mapping the Youth Sector

Credit Points: 12.00

Terms

Course Code

Campus

Career

School

Learning Mode

Teaching Period(s)

HWSS2130

City Campus

Undergraduate

365H Global, Urban and Social Studies

Face-to-Face

 Sem 2 2007,
Sem 2 2009,
Sem 2 2010,
Sem 2 2011,
Sem 2 2012,
Sem 2 2013,
Sem 2 2014,
Sem 2 2015,
Sem 2 2016,
Sem 2 2017,
Sem 2 2018

Course Coordinator: Debra Bateman

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 8267

Course Coordinator Email: debra.bateman@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Location: 37.2

Course Coordinator Availability: By appointment


Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

None


Course Description

This course introduces students to the key organizations, services and forms of work characteristic of modern youth work. It also initiates a process of professional development by assisting students to begin considering their own future and needs in that regard. This is achieved through learning activities that involve mapping the youth sector. That exercise begins with the identification of the different levels of local, state, national and international dimensions of policies and programs. It also entails a charting of organizations that provide youth services (ie., public and statutory organizations non-government organizations -NGO’s-, and the private sector). This will enable students to appreciate the different ways contemporary youth work is practiced as well as having some knowledge of number of the different youth policies and programs that currently exist. Attention is given to the official profiles and experiences of young people who receive those services.

The course will be presented primarily as a campus-based practicum that brings practitioners from the youth work sector into the university to meet with students on a weekly basis. Arrangements will also be made for students to make a limited number of short observational visits to organizations in the field and to report back on those meetings. As part of the mapping process students will be invited to consider their own professional education and to think about the future choices they have as youth workers. To achieve this students will develop a curriculum vitae, and identifying skill and types of youth work program or service they wish to learn more about. (Information from this exercise will be used to match students with agencies for their second year field education placement). 


Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

The students will engage with the following RMIT Capabilities:


By the end of this course students will:

  1. Identify key forms of youth work and organisations and services in the youth sector, and how they relate to each other.
  2. Represent their understanding of the youth sector.
  3. Illustrate knowledge of official representations as well as the experiences of particular groups of young people who receive youth services.
  4. Articulate the kinds of attributes required for competent professional practice and some of the different approaches to youth work
  5. Evaluate prospective and aspirational career prospects and suitability as youth workers
     


Overview of Learning Activities

The kind of learning activities students will experience in this course include:

  • Meetings with practitioners
  • Field visits
  • Use of information and communications technology to research various agency websites
  • Analysis of documents.

Learning activities will also include some formal lectures/presentations, seminars incorporating active problem based learning, interviews, comparative and field work.


Overview of Learning Resources

Students will need to access to prescribed and recommended texts and information technology (computers, data bases).


Overview of Assessment

Assessment tasks are directly linked to the stated objectives and graduates capabilities. Assessment tasks will include class based activities, and written reports, essays, folios, oral reports, and annotated visual reports.