FdA Public & Community Services

This foundation degree will equip you with the skills and knowledge that are in demand by public service employers such as the Police, the Armed Forces, fire and ambulance services and the prison service. You will develop your academic knowledge, alongside gaining first-hand experience of the public service sector, to help you to pursue a rewarding and fulfilling career.

Aims

Provide a foundation degree that will incorporate all aspects of public and community services as well as other areas of business that impact on the public sector, such as managing teams, health & safety, equality, community awareness, sociology, lifestyle management, psychology, activity management. Develop and challenge you across a range of transferable, intellectual and cognitive skills that are essential for a career in public or community services, or one of the multi-agency bodies associated with them.

Provide a flexible programme of study that will enable you to identify, acquire and develop transferable skills and knowledge which will enable you to contribute and develop your full potential in the labour market and public and community employment sector. To enable you to develop your skills and knowledge through work based learning which is integrated with work-based study, underpinned by knowledge and skills. Provide a challenging, employability led curriculum relevant to the current and projected needs of regional business and corporate clients in areas of public and community services.

Modules Level 4

• Principles of Managing Teams
• Introduction to Social Sciences
• Equality & Diversity
• Lifestyle Management in the Public & Community Services
• Personal & Professional Development
• Work Based Learning.

Level 5

• Innovation, Idea Generation and Enterprise
• Health & Safety and Operational Response in the Services
• Applied Psychology in the Public & Community Services
• Activity Management
• Personal & Professional Development
• Work Based Learning.

Teaching & assessment

Formal lecture based delivery will be used to establish the concepts of organisational structure, culture, function, environmental analysis and stakeholder theory with which students need to familiarise themselves with.

To reinforce the above concepts, further emphasis will be placed upon group activity, to give you the opportunity to apply theory to industry/sector practice via group exercises, and case studies. Relevant guest speakers and activities will be utilised to aid the acquisition of theory through practice. Workshops will involve you carrying out research to review their chosen sector/industry and take the opportunity to share your findings amongst fellow students within the class about the potential career prospects within the industry/sector.

You will be expected to arrange and attend an agreed work placement and draw experience and knowledge to meet assignment criteria. You will be expected to support your contributions by researching reports, textbooks, journals and web based materials. Individual and group tutorial activities will be used to assist you in your reading and interpretation of theoretical concepts and to provide feedback on your performance. ~ Throughout the programme, assessed work is predominantly coursework based. There is one exam within Equality and Diversity.

Entry Criteria

• Minimum of 18 years of age
• Three GCSEs grade C or above, usually including English Language and maths (or appropriate Key Skills qualification)
• A-Level, AS Level, BTEC National qualifications at Level 3, or equivalent, in a relevant subject or a total of at least 80 UCAS tariff points.

The College also welcomes applications from those individuals possessing non-standard entry qualifications, and mature students (without the required entry qualifications). Such applications will be dealt with on an individual basis by the course leader. You may be asked to apply to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) in relation to your work placement activity. There may be a cost to applying for this, which you will be expected to cover. The DBS helps employers make safer recruitment decisions and prevent unsuitable people from working with vulnerable groups, including children.