[
About Us
Introduction
In August 2004, the Faculty of Education completed the re-structuring of its former thirteen departments into five new departments. The former Community Education Department has now become the Community Education Division within the Educational and Professional Studies Department.
Community Education will continue to offer its Bachelor of Arts degree(BA) and Postgraduate Certificate courses, with both full-time and part-time mode of delivery. In addition, the other work of the Community Education Division will continue as outlined within this website
The development of training for professionals in Youth and Community work was started in 1964 as a two year diploma in Youth Work at Jordanhill College of Education. This subsequently developed from its original intake of eighteen students into a three year ordinary and four year honours degree course with 120+ students currently studying via this route.
Other developments have included a one year Post Graduate Certificate in Community Education started in the 1970's, followed by a part-time Post-Qualifying Diploma in Community Education in the 1990's. More recently a part-time route has been added to the portfolio for undergraduates and a similar option is available for the Post Graduate Certificate in Community Education.
Currently there are also opportunities for study at Higher Degree level, mostly via research, and in 1999 the first PhD was awarded from the department.
As in any developing, dynamic service, change is almost constant and within Scotland there is now a move toward Community Learning and Development as an approach to empowering people within their communities. This approach has been shaped by the day to day practice of working with people of all ages within their local communities, organizing informal learning and community projects that tackle real issues in people's day to day lives.
The Scottish Executive believes that the ways in which community learning and development practitioners work with people to identify and tackle problems and to realise their hopes, ideas and solutions, can and should influence the practice of a far wider range of public service professionals.
Currently the view is of community learning and development as an approach to social change, rather than only as a description of a narrow occupational service. Thus the department will be involved in training professionals to work with communities to empower through learning and to engage as active partners in shaping change.