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Want to get into psychology without a degree?

I can't go back to university; I have a mortgage, but all the degrees out there require a psychology degree!

Dont want to end up in further debt..

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Have you considered trying to become an assistant for some place or a receptionist and working your way up from there?
Reply 2
Problem is that I am in a well paid job -- and I would have to take a pay cut and I really can't afford to do that!
Are you wanting to become a practising psychologist?
Reply 4
Original post by bones-mccoy
Are you wanting to become a practising psychologist?


Something along those lines..
Reply 5
As far as I know from studying psychology myself, you really have to have a degree as well as a secondary postgraduate qualification to be a certified and accredited psychologist. But if you don't want to go into practise there may be alternate routes.
Original post by Kasa
Something along those lines..


How about a counsellor?
Original post by Kasa
Something along those lines..


I'm pretty sure you need an accredited degree followed by a Masters degree to work as a psychologist, you have to be registered with the HCPC to practise as one
Original post by Kasa
Problem is that I am in a well paid job -- and I would have to take a pay cut and I really can't afford to do that!


Do you have kids? If you don't you could rent out spare rooms in your house and use that to pay mortgage.
You could study a second undergraduate degree or msc and you only have to pay back around 9% of earning over £25000. So that means of you got paid £30000 you would pay about £40 a month back and it's wiped at retirement.
(edited 4 years ago)
If you already have a degree, you could consider a one year (full time) or two years (part time) conversion course. However you still need relevant work experience to get onto the qualifying courses (masters or doctorate depending on the type). Some are funded and some aren't as well
Original post by Interrobang
If you already have a degree, you could consider a one year (full time) or two years (part time) conversion course. However you still need relevant work experience to get onto the qualifying courses (masters or doctorate depending on the type). Some are funded and some aren't as well

It's worth saying that 'full time' varies.

So a conversion course at the local uni deliberately runs the conversion course all lectures one day a week. People generally stay in work, people have mortgages, families etc. This happens at some other unis. Yes, actually before anyone asks, this uni has a good record of getting people onto doctorates. I doubt anyone is screaming at interviews yeah I have a master's and it was one day a week for a year, well not even for a year...

Other unis have 2-3 days of lectures and it makes it difficult.
Reply 12
Original post by marinade
It's worth saying that 'full time' varies.

So a conversion course at the local uni deliberately runs the conversion course all lectures one day a week. People generally stay in work, people have mortgages, families etc. This happens at some other unis. Yes, actually before anyone asks, this uni has a good record of getting people onto doctorates. I doubt anyone is screaming at interviews yeah I have a master's and it was one day a week for a year, well not even for a year...

Other unis have 2-3 days of lectures and it makes it difficult.

What about the open university?
Original post by atiduy
As far as I know from studying psychology myself, you really have to have a degree as well as a secondary postgraduate qualification to be a certified and accredited psychologist. But if you don't want to go into practise there may be alternate routes.


Which ones do you mean?
Reply 13
This reminds me of the Friends episode where Phoebe announces her New Year's resolution is to pilot a commercial jet. Unlike Chandler, I'm not resolved to remain tight lipped on the subject of trying to become a psychologist without a degree.

First, psychologists have a protected title in the UK. You can't call yourself one without a psychology degree. You can't access training without a psychology degree.

Second, if you think psychology is so easy that it doesn't require specialist training, usually with a hefty research component attached, then you don't understand the profession very well. You may well like the idea of being a psychologist, but you may not like the reality much at all.

Third, if you want to change careers, there are sacrifices involved. You may have to drop down a pay grade or five. You may not be able to do it at all if your mortgage is the greater priority right now. It may be that you have to strip your lifestyle back to the bone to be able to do it. That's what I've done to achieve a career change.

Fourth, degree doesn't necessarily mean three years in the initial instance if you already have a first degree. You can do a one or two year masters to convert to psychology. There is also government funding available in the form of loans if you don't have a master's already.

Fifth, your experiences in work will count. If you want to be a psychologist i.e. go through the professional training programmes etc. then you may find that you are already able to evidence a number of the competencies from your work. However, if you want to fulfil the entry requirements for clinical psychology or similar then you will need something along the lines of 12 months clinically/educationally/forensically relevant work experience. There is no getting around that.

This may be something you need to think carefully about. I recommend going to the ClinPsy forum to find out a bit more. You may also want to consider alternative career changes e.g. counsellor, speech and language therapist, wellbeing practitioner, medicine etc. for which the training period is significantly shorter than psychology. But you are probably going to need a degree for any of those. No shortcuts.
(edited 4 years ago)
Original post by Kasa
What about the open university?

The MSc isn't a conversion course and is simply two modules a 60 crediter and an 120 credit project. This is unusual for OU study. I guess it'd mean it'd be done in two years. The OU has never had a Psychology conversion course, there was an accredited Cert/Dip that ran from 1995-2010.

I would expect that the OU MSc is a lot more work than that at some other universities.

PS it is very unclear to me what you mean by practising psychologist, which is why you haven't got longer answers.
(edited 4 years ago)
Original post by Kasa
Problem is that I am in a well paid job -- and I would have to take a pay cut and I really can't afford to do that!

If you don't want to go back to university, and don't want to get relevant employment due to a pay cut, then you're running out of options. As others have said, a degree is required for most psychology career paths/jobs, so you need to think about what you want to prioritise and whether it's worth doing.
Reply 16
The OU isn't currently offering a conversion course. The last presentation of this was 2012 or 2013 I believe. They run an MSc in Psychology but it's aimed at psychology graduates, so it's not accredited.
Original post by marinade
As I understand it the current OU conversion course is simply two modules a 60 crediter and an 120 credit project. This is unusual for OU study. I guess it'd mean it'd be done in two years.

I would expect that the OU MSc is a lot more work than that at some other universities.

PS it is very unclear to me what you mean by practising psychologist, which is why you haven't got longer answers.
Original post by giella
The OU isn't currently offering a conversion course. The last presentation of this was 2012 or 2013 I believe. They run an MSc in Psychology but it's aimed at psychology graduates, so it's not accredited.

That ones out then. Wouldn't have recommended it anyway as might have been clear from my post.

Makes sense, the OU got rid of some of their other things like teacher training around that time and a bit later.
@Kasa check BPS accredition for conversion courses here.

It is something I didn't do on this occasion as it's unclear what you even want to do and when previously I've looked stuff up I've had know it alls arguing back saying odd things about accreditation.

https://www.bps.org.uk/public/become-psychologist/accredited-courses?type=CONV#institution_modal
You haven't stated what degree you have, what job you want to go into or even what work experience you have so it's hard to provide good advice.

I'm pretty sure if you have a look, there are accredited masters degree level conversion courses that you can do part time.

Otherwise, your other option would be to do a psychology degree, possibly with the open university which you can do part time. There are many people who are studying with a mortgage, full time job and kids. It's possible if you really want it.

Even counsellors and psychological well-being practitioners hold a psychology degree. Speech and language therapists also hold a degree. Considering the huge number of psychology graduates, they're more likely to be picked for a position over someone who doesn't have a degree. Even to be an assistant psychologist, who work under a chartered psychologist (who have doctorates), you need a psychology degree. So you either get a degree or do a conversion course, or rule out a psychology based career.
Original post by Kasa
I can't go back to university; I have a mortgage, but all the degrees out there require a psychology degree!

Dont want to end up in further debt..

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