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Best route into Social Work- Undergraduate or Master's Degree?

I'm currently considering universities and courses for 2016 entry, originally wanting to be a teacher but now becoming more interested in social work as a possible career. I know that to become a social worker you need either an undergraduate or a Master's degree in social work, but can't find any info on if one of these routes is seen as superior to the other or if one improves your chances of getting a job in social work.

To some extent my preferred option would be to do a degree in another subject first (probably English), using my time to also gain experience of working with vulnerable groups before doing a MA in Social Work. However, I'm not sure if to do the MA having experience would be enough or if my degree would have to be in a subject more related to social work?

Thanks for reading! :smile:

Reply 1

Sophie_14

Hi,

It doesn't make any difference to job prospects if you study social work as an undergraduate or postgraduate. If you're sure about social work then I would imagine it'd be best (and cheaper) just to go for the undergraduate.

However, if you are unsure at this stage and want to keep your options open then you could study English for example and then pursue an MA in social work later... You will need some experience of working with people (but generally not formal social care experience).

Your undergraduate degree would not need to be in a subject related to social work for you to be accepted onto the MA. I'm just about to begin my MA and my undergrad was in Biomedical Science! (graduated 3 years ago).

Hope all goes well with whatever you decide. :-)

Reply 2

LPK

Hey,

In my experience, there's a noticeable shift towards social work becoming a postgraduate career. The actual job market for social workers doesn't seem to really care all that much, as they just want solid education and graduates. However, universities have been put in a rather unfortunate position in regards to funding, and the options for postgraduate training are a lot more productive for a variety of social work departments. For example, I completed my training at Liverpool John Moores University, and the fees for the course were entirely covered by the NHS fees payment. However, those at BA not only had to deal with the more stringent financial restrictions attached to student finance, but they also had to pay £9000 a year for training, so they're now in a lot of debt. The breaking point for them was when the cap on NHS bursaries was introduced, as rather than divide their allocations between two courses, they got rid of the undergraduate course so they could devote all of their limited financial resources on the one course.

Others have done it differently, and I highly doubt there's going to be a point when undergraduate social work becomes non-existent. However, that forced push towards postgraduate resources is only going to result in that bar raising to a higher level, and it could be that undergrads end up sat in interview rooms surrounded by saturated applicants from the MA market. That's not necessarily a guarantee they won't get the job, but it becomes just another barrier to navigate that isn't anything to do with professional competence. Quite annoying really.

All in all, it won't be impossible to assimilate into the profession whichever route you take. However, my advice to anybody would be to aim for postgrad. The funding, if you can get it, is better, the fees shouldn't affect you (if you have a university who aren't greedy about it), and you'll be on the higher-end of the trained market.