Bachelor of Arts in Child and Youth Care

A full range of courses is available to complete a program of studies leading to a B.A. degree in Child and Youth Care at Vancouver Island University. The Child and Youth Care degree program is a four-year course of study (120 credits), which prepares students to enter a variety of child and youth care employment settings. These range from early intervention programs to youth corrections programs, child protection and guardianship work, and community-based programs such as day-care, schools, family support and group homes.

The program is designed in response to increasing demand from employers for skilled child and youth care practitioners who are able to work in an integrated, multidisciplinary way. Some of the topics that students will be required to study are child welfare, abuse and neglect concerns, human and family development, theories of practice; and activity-based interventions. Indigenous ways of knowing and cultural safety skills are integrated throughout the curriculum. The program is offered on a full-time basis.

To be eligible for admission at first year, general admission requirements apply.
To obtain second year standing, VIU B.A. CYC program students must complete 24 of the required 30 credits from first year. Those 24 credits must include ENGL 115and 6 credits of Human Development (normally CYC 111/112), and the following Child and Youth Care core courses (or content equivalent of) CYC 100, 101, 152, and 165, or students must have completed a recognized Human Services Certificate program that includes the English and Human Development and CYC courses or equivalency requirements as stated above.
To be eligible for admission to third year, students must have completed a diploma in a Human Services discipline, including completion of the Degree English requirement, (6 credits with a min. "C+") and Human Development Requirement (6 credits with a min. "C+"), providing courses meet the VIU CYC program requirements. The overall GPA of students to be admitted to third year will be a minimum of 2.33 ("C+"), calculated on the most recent 24 credits completed, and with a min. "C+" in each of the individual courses previously identified for meeting admission requirements.

To meet the English language requirements for academic program, students must have completed:

VIU English Language Centre's - Successful completion of University Preparation Level 5
International Baccalaureate English A1/A2 - Higher Level (HL)/ Standard Level (SL) grade 3 or higher
IELTS 6.5 (with no band under 6.0)
TOEFL 550 (with no section under 56)
TOEFL iBT 88 (with no section under 20)
Pearson (PTE) 60 no section below 60
Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English with a minimum Cambridge English Score of 176.
Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English with a minimum Cambridge English Score of 176.