Bachelor of Applied Science (Honours) in Community Social Services and Diploma in Social Service Worker

at University of Guelph-Humber Canada

Our program focuses on the physical, social, emotional and cognitive development of young children and their interaction with the world around them. You will learn to assess children’s learning; support and educate children in a meaningful way; understand how to create interventions; and know how to work with children in a variety of settings.

Your first year introduces you to the domains of child development and theories and foundations of early childhood. In your second year, you learn the basics of human anatomy and physiology; how to create curriculum; observation and research skills; dynamics of relationships; and how biases impact our interactions with children and families.

See first-hand how learning environments can support diversity and inclusion for children with a range of abilities when you use our interactive classroom. It facilitates and enriches learning with Smart Boards, whiteboard walls, specialized seating (pods) and desks, wiggle chairs and integrated technology.

In your third and fourth years, you learn how to develop curriculum in educational and therapeutic settings. The curriculum includes children with special needs, infant and children's mental health, therapeutic play and interprofessional collaboration. Communication with children and families is a focus for your third year. And your fourth year emphasizes professional skills such as leadership and working collaboratively. 

You will take a journey of self-awareness, find your own voice and develop a comprehensive set of abilities to deal with diverse circumstances in an empathetic manner.

Experiential Learning

• Complete 800 hours of workplace experience.
  • Year 1, Winter: Job shadowing will help introduce you to early learning and care settings.
  • Year 2, Winter: Experience an early learning and care setting.
  • Year 3, Fall: Participate in a placement related to inclusion and special needs.
  • Year 3, Winter: Gain knowledge in community-based organizations.
  • Year 4, Fall and Winter: Select a year-long setting tailored to your career aspirations and knowledge base.

Our Media program is evolving! Newly named Media and Communication Studies (formerly called Media Studies), the program is changing to deliver even more impactful study, reflect the industry and meet demands in the workplace. 

You will be introduced to key media disciplines and study the communication theories and perspectives that form the foundation of effective media practice. Study governance, policy, legal and ethical issues. Build a range of hands-on skills and learn to think critically and to work in a team environment. 

Following your second year, you will choose one of five specializations to direct your studies. As you further hone your skills, you will apply them to collaborative projects such as producing a digital news site, creating a comprehensive marketing communications plan or promoting and managing a large event. 

Specializations
Digital Marketing & Social Media: Learn the fundamental principles of marketing, combined with evolving practice of social media, and how organizations use them ot influence behaviour and attitudes. 
Media Management & Analytics: Learn how media enterprises, organizations and departments are developed and operate and the principles of strategic communication and the use of data analytics in crafting promotion, advertising and content strategies. 
Multimedia Journalism: Learn the skills demanded by traditional and emerging news and information platforms—print, broadcast, online and multimedia—with a strong focus on writing, editing and packaging. 
Public Relations: Learn the skills and techniques central to public persuasion and corporate representation, including media relations, public affairs, social media and event management. 
Visual Communication: Learn the fundamentals of photography, videography, design and production as they are deployed throughout the media industry to communicate key messages and concepts.

Regardless of your chosen specialization, you will bridge into the working world with an internship of 200+ hours at a media organization and a multidisciplinary, award-winning project called EMERGE, a groundbreaking media project that brings together all five specializations.

What credentials will I graduate with?
Earn BOTH an Honours Bachelor of Applied Arts in Media Studies AND a Diploma in Media Communications.

You gain both theoretical knowledge and applied skills – that’s why you graduate with two credentials. Both an honours degree from the University of Guelph, and a diploma from Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning – two of Canada’s leading postsecondary institutions. All in four years of full-time study.

Our curriculum is what makes the difference. It innovatively combines theoretical and applied learning so that you are better prepared for whatever you may choose to do – whether that means beginning a career or pursuing graduate studies.

“Studying business at UofGH enables students to hit the ground running in their professional careers. It’s about knowing how to approach problems because they have the theoretical knowledge, and knowing how to solve them because they have the applied skills. Employers’ expectations are high – that’s why our program emphasizes both.”

Focused Academic Program
Learn how to market goods, fund a business, lead others, work ethically, think big and collaborate, but above all, focus on your career objectives. Get introduced to a range of different business areas and discover where your interests lie.

Choose to focus your studies in one of six areas of emphasis or select a variety of courses reflecting a range of interests.

• Accounting: Complete the courses you need to pursue your CPA when you graduate.
• Finance: Learn about banking, insurance, capital projects, investing and portfolio management.
• International Business: Explore global currencies, trade and industry practices of Asia Pacific, Europe and Latin America.
• Management: Learn the challenges of running various types of enterprises including for-profit, not-for-profit, small and large businesses.
• Marketing: Explore how product, price, place and promotion meet consumer needs and achieve company objectives.
• Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship: Study key strategies for starting and maintaining a successful new venture.

In our Business Management Simulation course, you run a virtual business over one semester—making business decisions and managing the results. In Business Analytics, learn the core techniques of data analysis, including data mining, pattern detection, graphic visualization and modelling. Prepare a business plan for a new small business, then showcase your business at the Small Business Fair on campus—a student favourite.

Pursue HR. Take our pathway to the Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP) or Certified Human Resources Leader (CHRL) designations with a suite of human resources courses.
Our program combines an in-depth knowledge of the business world with the hands-on skills necessary to lead and succeed.    

What credentials will I graduate with?
Earn BOTH an Honours Bachelor of Business Administration AND a Diploma in Business Administration.

You gain both theoretical knowledge and applied skills – that’s why you graduate with two credentials.  Both an honours degree from the University of Guelph, and a diploma from Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning – two of Canada’s leading postsecondary institutions.  All in four years of full-time study.

Our curriculum is what makes the difference.  It innovatively combines theoretical and applied learning so that you are better prepared for whatever you may choose to do – whether that means beginning a career or pursuing graduate studies.

Experiential Learning
You will graduate with up to 520 hours of workplace experience (minimum 100 hours) that is tailored to your goals and will guide your career decisions.

Discover how psychology plays a role in every area of society, then find your niche. Study the brain. Learn research skills. Explore the processes and factors that shape who we become by studying topics such as development and aging, learning difficulties, ethics, culture, neuroscience, cognition, psychotherapy, abnormal psychology and persuasion.

Your first two years introduce you to key concepts and provide foundational courses. In years three and four, your courses will become more focused and offer more applied study. In addition to your honours degree and diploma, you have the option to pursue one of three certificates in years three and four:

Certificate options

• Intercultural Relations: Increase your cultural literacy and enrich your understanding of diversity in Canada.
• Organizational Behaviour: Develop a greater understanding of leadership, groups and behaviour in organizations.
• Research Skills and Analysis: Expand your knowledge of research methods in psychology and refine your investigative and analytical abilities.

Your final year opens up options such as completing an honours seminar or thesis.

Exciting news! We are currently awaiting Senate approval for a name change from "Family and Community Social Services" to "Community Social Services" and three new Areas of Emphasis (see below).*

Explore current social issues and understand the challenges faced by vulnerable populations so you can learn how to deliver impactful services, such as counselling, mediation and crisis intervention.

Courses in your first year focus on understanding human behaviour and issues related to individuals, families and groups.
New - After your first year, you will have the option of selecting one Area of Emphasis from the three options below:*

• Youth and Family Counselling
• Mental Health and Addictions
• Gerontology

Where possible, your 4th year field placement could be chosen to coincide with your area of emphasis and up to 20% of your core courses would be related to your area of emphasis as well.* In your second year, you will engage in theoretical and practical studies in counselling, ethical and professional issues, and working with various vulnerable populations.

In your upper years, you will work with diverse groups and learn theory and techniques in areas such as family therapy, case management, crisis intervention, and nonprofit agency administration. Build strong clinical skills that exceed the industry standard for undergraduate education. Learn basic communication competencies to more in-depth therapeutic interventions for individual, group and family counselling. You will practise interviewing, counselling, crisis intervention, mediation and conflict resolution. By recording the sessions, you can analyze your techniques to help you learn to communicate and support people more effectively.

Graduate with important skills in social services—how to listen, how to support someone, understanding boundaries, professionalism, cultural awareness, compassion, global citizenship and self-care. In your final semester, apply to get registered with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers as a Social Service Worker.

Learn how the body works, how to make it work better, what causes health issues and how to prevent illness. Develop a strong scientific and theoretical background and apply this knowledge to healthy populations, elite athletes, individuals with chronic diseases and people with physical challenges. Confidently apply yourself in any environment, such as health promotion, fitness, rehabilitation, coaching and research.

In the first two years of the program, you learn the fundamentals of the human body. Learn anatomy in a human cadaver lab in your first year: a rare undergraduate experience.

Labs extend your classroom content through applied techniques and hands-on lessons. They are integrated into every semester of study and enhance your learning experience of anatomy, exercise prescription, biomechanics, fitness assessment and more.

You will take at least four practicum courses, focusing on current industry trends to gain hands-on experience in an area of interest. Courses include Functional Ability Evaluation; Athletic Bandaging and Taping Techniques; Martial Arts for Group Fitness Training; and Forensic Kinesiology.

In the third and fourth years, your courses focus on performance and clinical applications of exercise and nutrition theory.

With your degree, you are eligible to pursue the following designations with several professional organizations such as Registered Kinesiologist with the College of Kinesiologists of Ontario; Certified Personal Trainer; Certified Exercise Physiologist; and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist.

Throughout your four years, you will be exposed to the justice system: from the rules we follow, to dealing with people and communities to the hands-on processing of crime scenes and making arrests. Build key skills required in any area of justice such as critical thinking, research methods and how to write effectively.

In your first year, you will build a foundation in justice and related fields. In year two, you begin to take courses that touch on various services and how they are delivered, such as counselling, conflict resolution, forensics and policing.

In your second year, you decide which diploma to pursue, focusing in on one of these two areas:

• Community and Justice Services: Focuses on social issues and explores the development of community programs, ways to work with both victims and offenders, and methods of crime prevention.
• Police Foundations: Prepares you for a career in the various levels of law enforcement in the Canadian justice system.

What credentials will I graduate with?
Earn BOTH an Honours Bachelor of Applied Science in Justice Studies AND a Diploma in either Police Foundations or in Community and Justice Services.

Given the new requirements for specialization and career advancement, working in this field means more than having the right skills – it means having the right credentials.  A university degree and a diploma means you’ll have everything you need should you want to specialize now or get promoted later. 

You gain both theoretical knowledge and applied skills – that’s why you graduate with two credentials.  Both an honours degree from the University of Guelph, and a diploma from Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning – two of Canada’s leading postsecondary institutions. All in four years of full-time study.

Our curriculum is what makes the difference.  It innovatively combines theoretical and applied learning so that you are better prepared for whatever you may choose to do – whether that means beginning a career or pursuing graduate studies.