Bachelor of Child and Youth Care

The Bachelor of Child and Youth Care is a four-year degree preparing practitioners to work therapeutically with children and adolescents experiencing emotional, behavioural and mental health difficulties.

Coursework covers child and adolescent development, attachment and trauma-informed practice, mental health in children and youth, therapeutic relationship and milieu practice, group work and family engagement, crisis intervention and de-escalation, child protection legislation and youth justice, anti-oppressive and culturally responsive practice, assessment and care planning, and professional ethics and self-care. Supervised field placements run through the program in residential, school, hospital and community settings.

Child and youth care in Ontario is moving toward degree-preferred hiring, particularly in hospital mental health, school board and children’s aid settings. The trauma-informed practice content is the professional core — understanding behaviour as communication rather than defiance is what distinguishes trained practitioners.

Field placement requires a police vulnerable sector check and, in most settings, immunisation records and CPR certification. Students who cannot clear these cannot be placed, so arrange them early.

The work placement is a graded part of the program, so you finish with documented Canadian experience and a referee rather than only a transcript.

Humber Polytechnic — formerly Humber College — is Ontario’s largest public college and a Designated Learning Institution (DLI O19376943122). The Lakeshore campus sits on the shore of Lake Ontario in south Etobicoke, next to Colonel Samuel Smith Park, and is home to Humber’s business degrees, media and creative arts, and social and community services programs. Heritage buildings, a residence opened in 2024 and a free shuttle to the North campus make it the most distinctive of Humber’s sites.

Its field maps to CIP 19.0708 (Child care and support services management). Because this is a degree, graduates are exempt from the November 2024 PGWP field-of-study restriction that applies to college credentials. Full-time on-campus study and graduation remain the conditions, and IRCC makes the final decision.