Social Work (Postgraduate Entry) MSW

What you study

You study the theories, skills and values of social work, learning how to work with people who have problems in their lives or whose actions cause significant problems for others.

You will meet the Health and Care Professions Council's standards of proficiency for social work through learning and teaching which includes

• assessment, planning, intervention and review
• skill development
• a dissertation
• psychosocial knowledge
• professional ethics
• law and policy
• social work theory and practice models..

Placements and work experience

Practical work experience is at the heart of this course. We have a 100% record of placing students in quality-audited placements.

You spend 170 days putting what you’ve learned into practice in real working situations, such as

• social work teams
• family centres
• primary care practices
• hospitals
• mental health settings
• women's refuges and a range of family support services for vulnerable people.

These placements take place with our partners in local authority, private and voluntary agencies across South Yorkshire and the North East Midlands. Previous students have worked in statutory local authority social work teams, NHS mental health units, youth offending teams working with the police, and charities including the NSPCC, Age UK, Barnados, Mind and Women's Aid.Your placements are supported by 30 specialist skills days. You work with experts, professionals and service users on specific topics such as how to assess risky behaviour, or interventions for safeguarding children.

In your final year, we run a workshop with employers on how to apply for jobs in social work.There are also opportunities to spend time studying abroad. Previous students have attended a summer school in Berlin, gaining new, international perspectives on social work and discovering how it is practised around the world.

Facilities

During the time you spend at university, you are based at our Collegiate Crescent Campus which includes our £13 million purpose-built Robert Winston Building, a newly built Heart of the Campus complex and a learning centre which is open 24 hours and seven days a week. You use specialist facilities including our courtroom, where you learn how to give evidence, and our virtual reality training environment which is used to practise different cases.