Program Overview

The integrated Master's in social work degree is a professional qualifying course, designed to equip you with the necessary skills, abilities and knowledge to succeed in a future career in social work. The four year programme combines undergraduate and postgraduate study into a single degree, helping to prepare you to work in all social care settings including residential, field, day care, healthcare and education within statutory, voluntary and private sectors, as well as multi-disciplinary settings and work teams.

The course is managed and delivered by long-standing partnerships between the University and local social work agencies including statutory, voluntary and service user-led organisations, and aims to produce practitioners who can critically reflect on their practice. Social work can be a challenging but rewarding profession, and at Huddersfield we take pride in helping you to develop the thoughtful, considerate and professional qualities you’ll need to succeed in your chosen career in social work.

How will you learn?

• You’ll be introduced to anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive practice within a complex and multi-cultural society, and within the context of professional and agency standards and requirements.
• You’ll be taught by experienced staff with a variety of backgrounds in social work and social care. You'll also meet practitioners, service users and their carers’.
• You’ll have the opportunity to hear the experiences and viewpoints from service users and carers, who are part of the Public Partnership Group.
• You’ll have the opportunity to put what you have learnt into practice through undertaking work placements in your third and fourth year. These placements will take place in a social work or related setting to support and enhance your learning. This will help to increase your future employability prospects and give you the chance to make useful contacts in industry. 100% of students stated that studying social work provided them with opportunities to apply what they learnt (National Student Survey, 2020).
• Working closely with local authority partners ensures you’ll be supported to make the transition to social work practice and are aware of available employment opportunities and post-qualifying social work progression pathways.

The course is part of the Yorkshire Urban and Rural Teaching Partnership, an accredited Social Work Teaching Partnership between local authority employers and the Universities of Huddersfield and York. The partnership develops and delivers innovative and creative approaches to social work education and training for students, ensuring social workers are confident and creative practitioners with the skills required for working in statutory social work. The Partnership also offers high quality student placements and a social work curriculum that is co-developed and co-delivered by social workers and service users.