Social Enterprise and Community Development – BA (Hons)

The aim of this module is to develop professional and transferable skills of learners through an examination of the approaches and principles of youth and community work in Ireland and internationally. The module examines community and youth focused participation and explores theoretical and practical approaches to working within communities and with young people in a community setting. It provides students with the knowledge, skills and values to manage community and youth based projects.

This module introduces the foundations of Social Entrepreneurship that are important to understanding the decisions that social entrepreneurs make, the environment in which they make those decisions and the tasks they must undertake before launching a new venture. The module will have an applied focus on business planning, sources of finance for Social Enterprise and an analysis of social enterprise in communities.

This module is designed to develop the students’ understanding of the necessity for effective leadership supporting continuous change and performance improvement and the extent to which change yields real improvement in an organisation’s performance towards achieving strategic objectives.

Students will gain an understanding of the Strategic Management process, Strategic Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour in the context of goal setting, people and performance and how these interact and are integral to underpinning high performing organisations.

This module will examine the different types of organisation that exist in the community development sector and will investigate the distinguishing features of these organisations. In addition, the module will critically explore the importance of governance in community development organisations.

This module examines the theory and practice of social research. Research is essentially about collecting information in a methodical way in order to answer a question or test out a theory. The module focuses on quantitative and qualitative research methods and on the skills necessary for the planning, data gathering and dissemination stages of ethical research. It demonstrates how social research can play a vital role in community, social enterprise or business organisations.

This Module will provide participants with highly tangible and practical skills of mentoring and facilitation within the enterprise and community sectors. It will explore mentoring, group dynamics, participatory sustainable decision-making, and effective and efficient meeting management. Conflict resolution and key communication and listening skills are included. The module is aimed at managers with responsibility for mentoring and facilitation as part of their day-to-day role or for those people wishing to move into a developmental role.

The aim of the module is to further facilitate the development of the students’ academic and research skills to enable them to complete a research project of 6,000-8,000 words. The project will be carried out in conjunction with communities and/or enterprise organisations, placing learners in their own communities and linking back to other modules giving an opportunity for integrated assessment. The project will focus on analysis, critical thinking, judgment, application of theoretical concepts and investigation, in accordance with accepted criteria and ethical standards.