Job opportunities after a social work degree?

Original post by Daisyxoxo

Hi! I want to study a social work undergraduate degree. I’ve told many people about this, and the majority have warned me off it saying that there is little to no job opportunities once graduating.

If anyone has recent (positive and negative) experience after graduating from social work, I’d love to hear it! Be as brutally honest as you can, I don’t want to make the wrong decision.

Thanks!

Well like most fields, Social Work has a fierce job market. It is hard to get onto a course without any experience in the field of social care.
At the institution where I studied a similar course, if applicants didn't have any experience to get a place on the Social Work course, they would have to study Health and Social Care course first so that they would be able to progress onto the Masters course in Social Work. Most of my former course mates took this exact pathway and are now studying a Masters course in Social Work. Not the ideal route but as I say, it is a fierce job market out there.
It really depends on the institution, but most insist that you gain work experience first to get a place onto their courses.

Therefore my advice to you would be to get experience in the field first.
Usually people go through the Support Worker role route and then progress from there. You would need to gain experience anyway as it will help you get a job after you have graduated. :smile:

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 2

OP

Original post by BritishGirl

Well like most fields, Social Work has a fierce job market. It is hard to get onto a course without any experience in the field of social care.
At the institution where I studied a similar course, if applicants didn't have any experience to get a place on the Social Work course, they would have to study Health and Social Care course first so that they would be able to progress onto the Masters course in Social Work. Most of my former course mates took this exact pathway and are now studying a Masters course in Social Work. Not the ideal route but as I say, it is a fierce job market out there.
It really depends on the institution, but most insist that you gain work experience first to get a place onto their courses.

Therefore my advice to you would be to get experience in the field first.
Usually people go through the Support Worker role route and then progress from there. You would need to gain experience anyway as it will help you get a job after you have graduated. :smile:

I’m not so much worried about getting on the course, as I already have relevant work experience and have talked to the university leader of the course and they’ve said with my experience and qualifications I shouldn’t have a problem on the course.

I am worried about after I graduate though and the likelihood of being unemployed because I can’t find a job that’s actually related to social work. I guess I just want reassurance that if I chose this it’ll work out in the long run

Reply 3

Original post by Daisyxoxo

I’m not so much worried about getting on the course, as I already have relevant work experience and have talked to the university leader of the course and they’ve said with my experience and qualifications I shouldn’t have a problem on the course.

I am worried about after I graduate though and the likelihood of being unemployed because I can’t find a job that’s actually related to social work. I guess I just want reassurance that if I chose this it’ll work out in the long run

I'd suggest you take a look at local councils' career pages. They probably do have a few vacancies on their websites and I do always hear that they are always desperate for Social Workers, but the question is, do you think you can cope with the pressures of the role?

Reply 4

Original post by Daisyxoxo

I’m not so much worried about getting on the course, as I already have relevant work experience and have talked to the university leader of the course and they’ve said with my experience and qualifications I shouldn’t have a problem on the course.

I am worried about after I graduate though and the likelihood of being unemployed because I can’t find a job that’s actually related to social work. I guess I just want reassurance that if I chose this it’ll work out in the long run

I'd suggest you take a look at local councils' career pages. They probably do have a few vacancies on their websites and I do always hear that they are always desperate for Social Workers, but the question is, do you think you can cope with the pressures of the role?
Each councils are different I think, so you should research into what they are specifically looking for.

Reply 5

OP

Original post by BritishGirl

I'd suggest you take a look at local councils' career pages. They probably do have a few vacancies on their websites and I do always hear that they are always desperate for Social Workers, but the question is, do you think you can cope with the pressures of the role?
Each councils are different I think, so you should research into what they are specifically looking for.

Yeah see this is where I keep hearing conflicting views! My sister works in the health and social care sector and her and her freinds have experienced a lack of opportunities due to cuts in funding to support social workers. Whether this is true I don’t know!

As for the pressure of the job, I’ve looked into it as much as I can and I know it’s a pretty thankless job for something so intense. However, I think I’d love a job where I can influence people’s lives in a positive way and that would be fulfilling enough for me and make it worth it.

Out of interest, are you a social worker? 😊

Reply 6

Original post by Daisyxoxo

Yeah see this is where I keep hearing conflicting views! My sister works in the health and social care sector and her and her freinds have experienced a lack of opportunities due to cuts in funding to support social workers. Whether this is true I don’t know!

As for the pressure of the job, I’ve looked into it as much as I can and I know it’s a pretty thankless job for something so intense. However, I think I’d love a job where I can influence people’s lives in a positive way and that would be fulfilling enough for me and make it worth it.

Out of interest, are you a social worker? 😊

Yes the first paragraph is 100% true unfortunately :frown:

which is why I moved on to do something because the bills don't pay themselves do they and I just generally would like to think to the future and look back at the past and think - I did that. Basically I'd like to be a successful person. :yes:

There is no point in moaning and complaining about something unless you are willing to change things; life is simply too short for that! :p:

The reason why I asked about how you can cope with stress and pressure because things gets missed easily and can get [unnecessarily] repeated.
Think about tragic cases such as the [notorious] Baby P, Victoria Climbe. They were caused due to neglect from Social Services.

Reply 7

OP

Original post by BritishGirl

Yes the first paragraph is 100% true unfortunately :frown:

which is why I moved on to do something because the bills don't pay themselves do they and I just generally would like to think to the future and look back at the past and think - I did that. Basically I'd like to be a successful person. :yes:

There is no point in moaning and complaining about something unless you are willing to change things; life is simply too short for that! :p:

The reason why I asked about how you can cope with stress and pressure because things gets missed easily and can get [unnecessarily] repeated.
Think about tragic cases such as the [notorious] Baby P, Victoria Climbe. They were caused due to neglect from Social Services.

Yeah that’s what I’m worried about. As much as I want to do something I love, I don’t want to struggling to just eat and pay bills. I feel like that’s the reality of being an adult though! What career did you change to? You seem very knowledgeable 😊

Oh yeah, I mean I guess with any health and social care job there’s always a risk of not giving the service user adequate care. It’s so awful. I think that’s more to do with adequate training and genuinely caring about the duties you have as a social worker though tbh. If you don’t have that then your clients will suffer.

Reply 8

Original post by Daisyxoxo

Yeah that’s what I’m worried about. As much as I want to do something I love, I don’t want to struggling to just eat and pay bills. I feel like that’s the reality of being an adult though! What career did you change to? You seem very knowledgeable 😊

Oh yeah, I mean I guess with any health and social care job there’s always a risk of not giving the service user adequate care. It’s so awful. I think that’s more to do with adequate training and genuinely caring about the duties you have as a social worker though tbh. If you don’t have that then your clients will suffer.

Well I used to work in the dog eat dog world of Recruitment. :lol:

However I'd like to think of work experience as life experience too, learn about how the world actually works (pun intended)!
People seem to think they're entitled to everything these days - they just want everything to be served to them on a plate. :colonhash:

Yes I do agree about adequate training, but people seem to forget that passion doesn't need to be trained - it has to be in yourself as a personality trait if that makes any sense. :yes:

Not a lot of people do have a passionate side though in my personal opinion unfortunately.
Also jobs like Social Work does change people in a negative way too because of the pressures especially those clients with mental health issues and obviously there is a lot of taboo about the subject. :frown:

Reply 9

1secondsofvamps

I know someone who did a social work degree and worked as a social worker for many years. But then had a slight career change so now teaches health and social care at a college.

Reply 10

OP

Original post by BritishGirl

Well I used to work in the dog eat dog world of Recruitment. :lol:

However I'd like to think of work experience as life experience too, learn about how the world actually works (pun intended)!
People seem to think they're entitled to everything these days - they just want everything to be served to them on a plate. :colonhash:

Yes I do agree about adequate training, but people seem to forget that passion doesn't need to be trained - it has to be in yourself as a personality trait if that makes any sense. :yes:

Not a lot of people do have a passionate side though in my personal opinion unfortunately.
Also jobs like Social Work does change people in a negative way too because of the pressures especially those clients with mental health issues and obviously there is a lot of taboo about the subject. :frown:

Oh yeah that’s very true. No job is a waste of time in my opinion, especially something like recruitment! You must get so much insight into different careers.

Yeah you couldn’t do something like social work without having a passion for helping people. You have to do it because you genuinely care about the people you’re working with!

A close family member of mine was admitted to a psychiatric hospital and the level of care was awful because the staff where do uninterested and had an attitude of just doing the bare minimum for him. Now he’s been admitted to a new hospital, the staffs energy is so much different because they actually interact and want him to do well and you can see he is doing 100% better. It’s just so important, like you said, that people truly are passion about aiding recovery in vulnerable people.

Reply 11

OP

Original post by 1secondsofvamps

I know someone who did a social work degree and worked as a social worker for many years. But then had a slight career change so now teaches health and social care at a college.

Do you know when they graduated their social work course?😊

Reply 12

Original post by Daisyxoxo

Oh yeah that’s very true. No job is a waste of time in my opinion, especially something like recruitment! You must get so much insight into different careers.

Yeah you couldn’t do something like social work without having a passion for helping people. You have to do it because you genuinely care about the people you’re working with!

A close family member of mine was admitted to a psychiatric hospital and the level of care was awful because the staff where do uninterested and had an attitude of just doing the bare minimum for him. Now he’s been admitted to a new hospital, the staffs energy is so much different because they actually interact and want him to do well and you can see he is doing 100% better. It’s just so important, like you said, that people truly are passion about aiding recovery in vulnerable people.

Well I started out as an agency worker first because I wanted to try out different things before I could make an actual decision about my career.
Then one of agencies decided to take me on as a Trainee Branch Administrator. I ended up being there for about a year but then I received a better offer elsewhere and have stayed there ever since because I'm much happier than where I was! 😊

That is what I hate about people doing a job that they most likely hate but do it because they just can.
They just think it's another job that pays without even considering how their negative attitude affects their actual job of helping vulnerable people! 😡
In my opinion that somehow came to play in those tragic cases that I previously mentioned.
I guess people just don't care much about anything these days which is extremely sad. :sadnod:

The same could be said about youths too though as they just generally don't tend to have respect for anything either! :no:

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 13

Abbiejadex

14

Im in the final year of my Social Work degree and from what I have seen there are plenty of job opportunities. My lecturers always said that there will (unfortuantly) always be a need for Social Workers due to the implications of todays society and contrary to popular belief, you do actually get compassionate Social Workers who genuinely care for their service users wellbeing. Yes there have been some terrible cases such as the baby P case which was apparently due to neglect from "social services", not the doctors or health visitors or even the parents who inflicted the unimaginable onto their poor son. However there are thousands of positive ways Social Workers help people every day but obviously the media arent really interested in sharing that with a society which clearly holds quite a negative view towards Social Workers... Anyway, Ive found that the degree also opens up lots of other career opportunities even if you werent able to get a job in Social Work, which I would think to be unlikely, or change your mind regarding your interests. Ive really enjoyed the degree over all. I began three year ago with an interest in children - fostering and adoption but my passion now lies with adults who have learning disabilities which is the area I hope to go into in a couple of months. If its what you want to do then I'd recommend you go for it regardless of what others say, I think the only wrong decision is not following your dreams to only regret it later on in life. Good luck whatever you choose! 😊 x

Reply 14

KWDean

4

Actually, they were not 'caused due to neglect from Social Services', they were caused by the people convicted of their deaths. Parents/family members/friends. Social Workers didn't kill either of those children.

Reply 15