To want to retrain as a forensic psychologist?

[BigglesPants]

I left school with no qualifications but fell into a sales/marketing career quite accidentally, and have studied part time along the way so I now have a master's in a marketing related discipline. I have a decent paying job and am good at what I do, however, it is stressful and although I used to enjoy it, I find I have become more and more disillusioned with it over the past year or so.

I've always been interested in psychology, especially the forensic side of it and have always wanted to explore it further but never got the opportunity. However, I've been browsing part time courses, and I could potentially do a HDip in Psychology over 4 years,and then continue on to a forensic psych masters. I am 35 now so would probably be 41/42 by the time I would be qualified (and would then obvs need to build experience).

Has anyone done something similar? Can any forensic psychologists shed any light on how relaistic this could be? Or is it just a January pipe dream?

I’ve a friend who works in psychology and she couldn’t get a sniff at any paid work until she had a PhD. Could you afford that length of study?

Getting the degree and the masters is the easy part - getting a job in that field afterwards is almost impossible.

First I'd look in your area at the job opportunities for a forensic psychologist. Are you willing to move?

2 years ago when l was teaching, l sat in on a careers workshop.

Their advice to Year 11 and 13? Don’t do Criminology or Forensic Psychology, as there are no jobs in it. Not enough murders and about 6 or 7 vacancies per year.

Agree with posters this is a totally unrealistic ambition. Ex DP was a forensic psych and his work was grim, stressful and incredibly taxing on his emotions dealing with broken people committing crimes. He worked hard to get his phd to deal with such a negative section of life. It's not what you see on the tv

It is competitive and a stupidly long retraining process...but possible. You need what the British psychological society called GBR to do your post grad training. If you have a degree this doesn't necessarily mean doing a whole other undergrad, many unis offer gbr course as masters or post grads. I did gbr via that route then my doctorate and now work in the NHS. I retrained in my early 30's. Forensic psychologists don't currently do a doctorate to qualify... The main employer for forensic psychologists is MOJ jobs.justice.gov.uk/role/forensic-psychology/
They are massively expanding the psychological therapy workforce within the NHS and there will be new roles and training roles coming up over the next 3 yrs. Many NHS services work into prison or provide specialist services workforce to YOT's or other forensic services.
Hey GBR and work experience then decide options... That would be my advice

Name says it all op 😁

With all due respect to above posters, if you’re not familiar with forensic psychology, you’re going to give inaccurate advice.

There are a few routes to qualification but the majority of people get trainee psych jobs with the prison service (as the route is then funded - costs a fortune if not!!) the competition is fierce.

The current route to chartership is twofold, and you’ve only described the first one, which is the academic side. Following a masters, you then start the actual hard work of qualifying - which is a minimum (in reality) of an additional four years, all done in your own time at weekends and in the evenings, as your day job (if you’re a prison service trainee) is all encompassing and is actually separate to chartership. There are many flaws with the current qualification route.

I’m happy to answer any specific questions you or
@FrownedUpon have but in all honesty, no, this isn’t realistic and I wouldn’t encourage it!!

@FuckNugget69 sorry not @FrownedUpon

@OhWhatFuckeryIsThisNow

I remember a careers day we had at school a few years ago. Some forensic officers from the police came in. Was very interesting, I was talking to them later and they said the amount of people wanting to go into the field had exploded due to programs like csi, they said they had to be positive on careers days, but the reality was in training wading through lots of bodily fluids and then there weren’t many jobs.

That's forensic science, @OhWhatFuckeryIsThisNow. Different thing. I believe there are a lot of degrees in forensic science around in recent years, but unfortunately they aren't much use when it came to getting a job, as what you really need to do that complicated lab work is a good degree in a subject like chemistry or biochemistry and then a Master's in the Forensic Science applications.

Not unlike forensic psychology and criminology in that respect. They sound like fascinating subjects to study, but unfortunately there are nothing like as many jobs in the field for the huge number of graduates.

A decade ago I was the administrator for a very oversubscribed MSc course that attracted a lot of psychology graduates. I found it jawdropping how long most of them had been working since graduating from their BSc, on very low salaries, short-term contracts or volunteering, in the hope of eventually ending up on a doctorate or similar programme (clinical psychology mostly, some were aiming for forensic psychology, others for counselling psychology). A good many students I heard of who did get places on a clinical psychology training programme had done a Ph.D. first. Immensely long slog.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

2 years ago when l was teaching, l sat in on a careers workshop.

Their advice to Year 11 and 13? Don’t do Criminology or Forensic Psychology, as there are no jobs in it. Not enough murders and about 6 or 7 vacancies per year.

I think we should all be delighted that there aren't enough murders in the UK to justify a massive expansion of forensic psychologists!

Having said that, there is so much work that could be done in prisons assessing the very damaged people that end up there to see what their problems are and supporting them to overcome or at least cope with them a bit better.

I know!! But that’s what they said! The murder rate was too low to employ all the people doing criminology as a degree.

This thread is so interesting!

I did a pure sciences degree at a top 10 redbrick UK university and I remember a few friends studying Psychology BSc

It sounded so interesting, the theories and experiments they did etc

Only a handful of students would make it though to become full blown psychologists one day, clinical psychology seemed the popular one but almost impossible to crack into/get on the pathway towards it

The students were very bright, so not for lack of intelligence...my university was renowned for students who had been too good for Oxbridge/turned down Oxbridge

Someone mentioned the demographic- and it's so true, white middle class females predominantly

I became a forensic psychologist the traditional route - university at 18, straight onto a masters etc. There were a few mature students on my masters and all worked in a prison in some capacity. If you're serious about this (I don't see why it isn't achievable if you put the work in a meet the requirements) I'd strongly suggest starting with a career change.

Seems to be some misconceptions on this thread though, it's not all working with murderers. You'll deal with a variety of criminals and can choose to work solely with victims.

@TurquoiseDress

This thread is so interesting!

I did a pure sciences degree at a top 10 redbrick UK university and I remember a few friends studying Psychology BSc

It sounded so interesting, the theories and experiments they did etc

Only a handful of students would make it though to become full blown psychologists one day, clinical psychology seemed the popular one but almost impossible to crack into/get on the pathway towards it

The students were very bright, so not for lack of intelligence...my university was renowned for students who had been too good for Oxbridge/turned down Oxbridge

Someone mentioned the demographic- and it's so true, white middle class females predominantly

Bristol?

I would strongly recommend getting experience in a relevant area e.g. as a HCA on a forensic ward. I did a placement on a forensic unit and loved it but it was the most emotionally draining one I’ve ever done- it’s a really tough environment in lots of ways and I imagine prisons are even more intense.

I did a Psychology BSc and MSc Forensic Psychology. I worked in secure units as a HCA full time and took up honorary assistant Psych posts in my “spare time”. I worked additional shifts to cover other “types” of client need. I volunteered to help conduct research,
Moving around the country to take up roles etc etc. In the end I gave up as I could not continue to live on £20k. Assistant Psych posts at HMP pay even less. From my MSc course a handful are now Dr’s it took them 10 years post graduation, moving from HCA/Support Worker assistant post to assistant post to cover lots of basis and then mixing in research. They’re clinical and it took them 3 attempts to get on the course. I had to really question the why I wanted to be one and what I perceived the role to be, when it came down to it I could do alternative roles that would fulfil that need. I still now work with offenders/ex offenders and those with multiple disadvantage, history or trauma etc

Everyone should explore their dreams and ambitions, without a doubt but I can be some destroying trying to get there

Do it!!!! I'm starting a masters in a completely new subject this year. I'm 40. It's definitely not too late!