Community/youth studies : Career areas

A 2010 HESA destination survery of 2009 community/youth studies graduates shows that six months after graduation 65% had found employment. More than half of these gain employment in social, welfare and informal education. Professions include youth work, community work, youth justice, drugs services, education, welfare rights, housing, health and trainee probation. Many jobs are project based such as anti-poverty initiatives, education, homelessness, drugs projects, sexual health initiatives, advisory work, community arts, and community regeneration projects. Some graduates also enter the voluntary sector and government service.

If your degree does not include recognised qualifications and you want to go into youth or community work, you will need to study towards the qualification on a part-time basis while you are working. This is especially true if you want to progress to senior levels.

Where are the jobs?

Employers of graduates in community/youth studies include local authority youth services, education departments, voluntary organisations, churches and other community-based groups.

For more detailed information about the range of options check out the following employment areas: 

• Education - covering schools, further and higher education;
• Government and public administration - covering local government, the civil service and arrangements in the different constituent parts of the UK;
• Charity and development work - looking at the expanding opportunities in this sector and how to make the most of them.

See industry insights for further information on possibilities in other employment areas.

Statistics are collected every year by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) to show what HE students do immediately after graduation. These can be a useful guide but, in reality, with the data being collected within just six months of graduation, many graduates are travelling, waiting to start a course, paying off debts, getting work experience or still deciding what they want to do. For further information about some of the areas of employment commonly entered by graduates of any degree discipline, check out What Do Graduates Do?  and your degree...what next?