Program Overview

We have over 50 years' experience in training people to become social workers in the super diverse city of Birmingham. If you already have a degree and want to become a professional social worker, successful completion of this course will enable you to work with children and adults in a range of social work settings to bring about positive change in their lives. You’ll also be eligible go apply for registration with the regulator, Social Work England, to obtain the protected title of ‘Social Worker’.

Being a social worker requires commitment and tenacity to make a positive impact on people’s lives. Social Work could be the career for you if you enjoy working with people, challenging discrimination and oppression, and promoting human rights and wellbeing. Social Workers work in diverse areas of practice, to enable both early and crisis intervention. These areas involve safeguarding, disability services, adoption and fostering, and adult social care to name but a few. You would work directly with people to support their needs and promote choice and independence. Social work is challenging and often emotional, but also a very rewarding career with a variety of routes and specialisms, as well as opportunities for progression, open to you once you qualify.

What's covered in this course?

You will experience a mixture of student-centred academic learning on campus and practice based learning in a service delivery setting within the community, reflecting the nature of social work as both an academic and practical discipline.

Academic learning will include a mix of face-to-face and online lectures, workshops and seminars, complemented by online resources and independent study. In addition to practitioners and academics from other relevant disciplines, your lecturers and tutors will include experienced social work academics, current practitioners, and service users and carers who are ‘experts by experience’. Together they will assist you to develop the knowledge, skills, values and professional capabilities you need for effective social work practice in the challenging world today. By bringing together these elements, you will learn to identify and navigate the complexities of social work to promote and protect wellbeing within a diverse community.

Approximately half the course involves direct practice experience through professional (practice based) placements. These are provided by our practice partners in both the first and second year of the course. On placement you will be supported by a team that includes a dedicated and qualified practice educator who will always be a registered social worker. Our practice partners include Local Authorities and the private, independent, and voluntary sector agencies.

Recent changes to our course plan mean that you will experience a range of assessment methods in addition to written assignments, such as role plays and presentations.