Module Directory

Overall this module aims to extend the student's awareness of their place within the field of childhood studies and childcare practice, developing knowledge of alternative approaches and extending their awareness about employability and career development in this sector. The module comes in two parts.

Part one will introduce students to ways of approaching their own employability. Students will initially reflect upon their current career position and explore their future career goals through the lens of psychoanalytic theory, motivational psychology and positive psychology. In addition to a reflective and theoretical approach to understanding employability, students will also adopt a pragmatic approach by directly engaging with a range of different professionals relevant to their degree subject. To complement a growing orientation to the world of work, students will learn about the wider context of the graduate labour market, in particular statistics, trends and routes into different relevant professions.

Part two of the module broadens student's awareness of alternative approaches and therapeutic interventions. As such it covers a range of modern theories and applications to therapeutic practice other than psychodynamic. It will provide basic underpinning ideas and orientation to enable students to be more professionally aware of the field in which they practice and it will support their capacity to understand, communicate and work effectively with other professionals. Students will read about 5 different approaches and hear presentations about their underpinning theory and how this is expressed in practice.

The aims of the module are:

• To encourage students to consider their own career development


• To  examine the current and classic employability theory and research in relation to wider citizenship/human development


• To gain a deeper understanding of the graduate labour market and how to skilfully navigate a path(s) through it


• To critically reflect upon how theory, practical knowledge and experience informs career/self-development


• To bring to students the awareness of other orientations and facilitate constructive relationships with children’s services


• To enable students to understand where psychodynamic thinking is situated in a wider range of approaches


• To lay the foundations for students to be able to make informed judgements as to what is the most appropriate intervention in particular cases

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:

1. Discuss sections of the graduate labour market that are relevant to a career of interest


2. Reflect on theory, job market knowledge and self to inform career choice


3. Understand and discuss non-psychodynamic therapeutic approaches to children


4. Acknowledge the relationships between psychodynamic and other methodological approaches


5. Have sufficient knowledge and respect of other orientations to support constructive professional networking and collaboration


6. Listen carefully to professionals, critically assess, debate, persuade, and challenge ideas and approaches

This module will be delivered via: 

• 10 x two hour sessions (mixture of lectures, seminars, presentations and panels)
• Weekly office hour during the teaching term (no appointment necessary)