Childhood and Youth Studies

Childhood and youth studies examines the lives, experiences, and development of children and young people, from infancy through adolescence, within the social, cultural, legal, and institutional contexts that shape them. It draws on developmental psychology, sociology, social policy, education, and law to ask who children and young people are, how they are understood and represented in different societies, what rights they hold, and how the institutions and services designed to support them actually function. It is a discipline with direct relevance to practice in education, social care, health, youth work, and policy.

The Open University's Childhood and Youth Studies programme is studied part time and delivered through distance learning, making it accessible to students regardless of geography or prior educational background. The Open University's model supports learners who are working alongside their studies, caring for children or other family members, or who have not followed a conventional route into higher education, and it has an outstanding record of enabling success under these conditions. You will study theories of child development, children's rights under UK and international law, the sociology of childhood, safeguarding frameworks, and the policy environment in which services for children and young people operate.

The programme takes seriously the perspectives of children and young people themselves, encouraging you to think critically about how they are constructed and represented in research, media, and policy.

Many students bring personal or professional experience with children and young people to this programme, and the curriculum is designed to support critical reflection on that experience as well as to introduce new frameworks and evidence.

Graduates pursue careers in early years education, primary and secondary teaching (as a stepping stone or alongside other qualifications), youth work, social work, family support, community development, policy, and research. The broad analytical foundation of the programme is also valued in management and leadership roles within children's services organisations.