To want to become a social worker?

[Draculahhh]

I have given this a lot of thought and I have a few options on how to get there though, I could do a Social work BA. An unrelated degree in something else and then do a masters, which I guess would be a good idea if I wanted to do something else much further down the line. Or there is a rumoured Social work apprenticeship in the pipeline although any information on this is sketchy at best.

To any social workers out there do you have any advice that I would need or find beneficial on my journey? Thank you in advance.

I am in the process of going BA and then masters route, I have my interview for my masters in a few weeks.

One of the common things is you need to get lots.of work experience in as it is very competitive for some reason!

Yeah the Uni where I would potentially do my masters wants 910 hours! of volunteer work. I have just put my name down to work in a contact centre, so I guess it is a good start.
Good luck for your interview Bugymalonemumof2

I graduated from the MA two years ago. I wish I hadn’t. The profession is in a state and I can’t see myself doing this much longer. I’m off for Christmas currently and the thought of going back drives me to tears.

I’m not a social worker but work alongside them. As you probably know it’ll be very emotionally demanding. The average career span of a social worker is relatively short. However, I know some Social Workers that absolutely love the role and feel a great sense if purpose. It’s definately a calling rather than a job.
I think most local authorities struggle to recruit to roles and (where I live) jobs are always available.

I trained as a SW as a mature student. Qualified in 2004. Left in 2016. It is an immensely stressful and thankless job. Think carefully about whether it is really for you before applying.

If you're planning to work in the UK there's no material benefit to doing a master's over a BA, employers don't recognise any difference between the two. They're the same content just one marked at a higher threshold and completed in a shorter timeframe. If you want to go abroad some countries require the MA to be classed as skilled worker. In places like the US the BA and the MA are completely different programmes.
The only other benefit re having an MA that I'm aware of is if you want to do research in future, eg go on to do a PHD.

There are/were fast track programmes (frontline for children's and a mental health one too) but both require you to have a first degree.

I don't know if the apprenticeship scheme will happen to be honest. I cant see that LAs have the resources to properly train apprentices, we already struggle with students and they're only with us 3 months!

Oh and don't believe the competition thing. Theres 'competition' because people apply for multiple places (is to different unis) but obviously only take one place. Everyone at my uni had got their first choice and we were a popular uni, and they could have accepted more to our course.

Do the BA. a masters is just spending more money for the same result.
I love being a social worker.

I've been qualified for 10 years and did the MA. I don't think it matters which route you take into it, I would probably choose whichever could get me into the role with the least cost. As people say it is a challenging job. Lots of people go into social work because they want to help others, but it is a job where you often get no thanks, and there is now the pressure of reducing budgets so it's often not what newly qualifieds think it's going to be.

Thank you so much for your replies, I have a cousin who is a social worker and she told me many horror stories. I could regret this massively but I honestly couldn't imagine doing anything else. Without outing myself too much I live in Bradford so I'm guessing getting a job once qualified won't be too difficult considering the area.

I am definitely leaning towards the BA, it's just a matter of getting that endlessly elusive C in Maths GCSE

Interested to read these responses as an ex-SW (I left in 2016). I worked for 9 years under two different managers and neither would interview anyone without an MA. Probably missed out on a whole load of great staff! I agree that the course content/placement requirements are the same, but the MA’s assessments will be marked at a higher level. I worked in child protection and both of my managers were massive sticklers for report writing (lots of court work), so that’s probably why.

Best of luck with your future studies, OP.

Being a registered social worker opens a lot of doors for you - while most do work in statutory settings, there’s a healthy jobs market in the third sector too with opportunities to do some really interesting, worthwhile work. Get some good experience before training, and earn your stripes in one of the more challenging areas of work and you’ll have a very portable cv.

@likesilver that's a really odd management approach, that would rule out SWs with twenty years experience before the MA programme existed!

I'd agree with jellycatspyjamas. Yes child protection social work is often a short career (I don't know many who have stayed in that specific area 5 consecutive years, there's a few but not the majority) BUT it's also one that people often go back to after a different SW role. Not to everyones tastes but roles with fostering teams and adoption teams tend to have much better work life balance and longevity. And although it is a pay drop, a SW qualification can put you in good stead to do management in children's homes, family support roles, pastoral support in schools, a friend of mine left the job to manage a nursery. I don't know much about the adult SW roles these days but there's definitely options outside child protection - most social workers in my team have been in this team less than 3 years but been working as a social worker 5-10yrs and a few 15yrs plus.

neither would interview anyone without an MA. Probably missed out on a whole load of great staff!

Barmy! Once a social worker has a couple of years of experience nobody even thinks about where they did their training. I work in a very good local authority and this simply isn't an issue, ever

I can kind of understand if you're comparing two newly qualified students. But outside of that, the research skills required for the MA have little bearing on court work (quite a different skill set) and it's fairly well known that the main difference between MA and BA students is whether they did their first degree as social work or whether they decided to retrain as a social worker after a different degree.
It's not like you can do a typical SW BA and then do a SW MA, certainly the uni I was at wouldn't accept people with a BA social work because it was essentially the same course. At the time a handful of unis did an MA in advanced social work which was an advantage but that was mainly as a post qualifying course.

OP I work in the neighbouring LA but trained in Bradford. I have been in CP for 15 years. Bradford uni had an amazing course back in the day. I studied at a Russell group uni before that but Bradford was my best experience. I would not work as a SW in Bradford at the moment but if you can get a job in the neighbouring LA (with our sainted leadership) then it is probably as good as it gets if you want to work with children. We moan about it all the time but compared to the rest of the country it is a great place to work. BA/MA makes no real difference. You just have to get through the interview and then do the job. We have frontline students (apprentiship) but to be honest if you want to be a social worker just follow the quickest route in. No one really cares how you get there.

Thank you all so much for taking to time to reply to me, my main concern was one that a pp brought up, if a LA had to chose between a social worker with a BA or an MA they would chose the higher educated person. It's interesting what you said about not working in Bradford Willstarttomorrow I knew it wouldn't be easy, it doesn't have a bad reputation for nothing I guess 😬

I'm a nqsw doing my ASYE in child protection in a really supportive team. I had a massive career change and started my masters aged 50. Loving every minute but am well aware that my caseload is protected. Planning on doing 2-3 years in CP then diversifying. Go for it op!