Frontline social work programme

[BiggBadBarry]

Hi everyone,

I'm considering applying for this in September - has anyone done this, or have any knowledge of it? I've been interested in social work as a career for a while, I'd love to hear of any experiences of this or social work training in general.

[mamasiz]

No experience of frontline but it’s always good to have social care experience before training to be a social worker - make if not all courses and routes into social work will demand this. Are you thinking Children’s or adults?

[mamasiz]

Sorry - stupid predictive text! Meant to say many, if not all courses will demand experience.

[BiggBadBarry]

Thanks for your reply! I'm thinking children's...I've not got social care experience as such, but I have an education qualification, and I've worked with vulnerable older adults in a hobby/activity setting, plus a few other bits that I think would be relevant. I didn't want to go down the university route again, I have an MSc in an unrelated topic so I didn't want any more student loans.

[mamasiz]

That sounds enough to me! I think if I hadn’t gone the MA route I would have done Frontline had it existed before I qualified. I started in Children’s and now work in Adults - both very different settings obviously but the core values of social work are needed in both. I would say out of the two I preferred Children’s, but it is extremely hard work. I can recommend some useful books to read ahead of your Frontline application if you like?

[mamasiz]

Also - it’s been a long while since I qualified but if you can do your practice placements in local authority settings rather than the charitable/voluntary sector it will stand you in good stead for employment afterwards but generally you won’t struggle to find ASYE roles in a LA as staff turnover is such that there are usually always vacancies.

[BiggBadBarry]

Thank you mamasiz that would be fantastic!