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Health and Social Care Studies (top-up)

Entry requirements


Foundation Degree in Professional Practice in Health and Social Care. or 240 points (120 level 4 and 120 level 5) from an equivalent health and social care programme

About this course


Course option

1year

Full-time | 2024

Subject

Nursing

**Please check the Sheffield Hallam University website for the latest information.**

**Course summary**
- Understand the complexities of working in the health and social care sector.

- Gain transferable analytical techniques and problem-solving skills.

- Top up your qualifications to earn an honours degree in health and social care.

- Prepare to lead organisations and services in emerging integrated health and social care roles.

This top-up course is designed to enhance the qualifications of students who aim to work in non-registered roles across health and social care organisations. You will graduate with a full undergraduate degree, whether you have a foundation degree or have previously studied health and social care qualifications equivalent to level 4/5 with a minimum of 240 credits.

**How you learn**
All our courses are designed around a set of key principles based on engaging you with the world, collaborating with others, challenging you to think in new ways, and providing you with a supportive environment in which you can thrive.

This course has been designed in response to rapidly changing workforce demands. New policy initiatives are aimed at modernising services and improving quality, productivity and efficiency. Much of your learning will be at the current boundaries of both academic and practice-based thinking.

You learn through:

- coursework

- group work

- independent study

- essays

- presentations

You learn the key knowledge and skills to become a dynamic practitioner in health and social care, and a future leader. Core modules cover management and leadership, understanding organisations, technology-enhanced care, skills for evaluating evidence, and future employment in the sector.

You will be supported in your learning journey towards highly skilled, graduate level employment through a number of key areas. These include:

- access to our unique student support triangle to help with your personal, academic and career development

- academic support to complete your dissertation

- access to our Skills Centre with one to ones, webinars and online resources, where you can get help with planning and structuring your assignments

**Applied learning**
Applied learning is the ethos at the heart of all Sheffield Hallam courses – meaning you are given the opportunity to put your studies into practice.

You will gain real-world skills through the focus on practice and employability – as well as the input of guest speakers from the sector – building on the skills and knowledge you bring from your previous learning and experience.

Applied learning means that when you do start work, you can dive in and make things happen.

**Future careers**
Our 1 year top-up course in health and social care provides a principal route for the training and education of assistant practitioners, who have developed roles in a wide range of services including

- long term conditions

- staying healthy

- end of life care

- maternity and newborn

- acute care

- planned care

- mental health

- children and families

This course is also suitable if you hope to pursue a career in health and social care, but are either unsure about which field of practice you want to work in, or perhaps are not eligible to access a pre-registration course.

Modules

Module and assessment information for future years is displayed as currently validated and may be liable to change. When selecting electives, your choices will be subject to the core requirements of the course. As a result, selections may be limited to a choice between one of two or more specified electives in some instances.

**Important notice:** The structure for this course is currently being reviewed and enhanced to provide the best possible learning experience for our students. Module structure, content, delivery and assessment are all likely to change, but we expect the focus of the course and the learning outcomes to remain as described above. Once the changes have been confirmed, updated module information will be published on this page.

**Compulsory modules**

Evidence Review
Management And Leadership In Practice
Practice And Employability Skills In Health And Social Care
Technology Enhanced Care
Understanding Health And Social Care Organisations

Assessment methods

Coursework
Practical

Tuition fees

Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:

Channel Islands
£9,250
per year
England
£9,250
per year
EU
£16,655
per year
International
£16,655
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,250
per year
Republic of Ireland
£9,250
per year
Scotland
£9,250
per year
Wales
£9,250
per year

Extra funding

Scholarships, discounts and bursaries may be available to students who study this course.

The Uni


Course location:

Sheffield Hallam University

Department:

College of Health Wellbeing and Life Sciences

Read full university profile

What students say


How do students rate their degree experience?

The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Nursing

Sorry, no information to show

This is usually because there were too few respondents in the data we receive to be able to provide results about the subject at this university.


Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

99%
UK students
1%
International students
7%
Male students
93%
Female students
68%
2:1 or above
8%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
C
B

After graduation


The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Nursing (non-specific)

What are graduates doing after six months?

This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.

£21,909
low
Average annual salary
100%
med
Employed or in further education
73%
low
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

98%
Nursing and midwifery professionals
1%
Welfare professionals
0%
Health professionals

19,890 nursing qualifications were awarded in 2015, making it much the most popular degree in the country. Despite that, we have a serious shortage of nurses - estimates suggest that we're over 20,000 nurses short - that is only set to continue. So it's no surprise to see that the very large majority of nursing graduates go on to become nurses, and that starting salaries are pretty competitive. There are lots of different specialties to choose from (including midwifery), and the most common by far is adult nursing, but the typical end result for graduates is the same — they go on to become nurses (or midwives). That’s not to say that you can’t do anything else. Some nursing graduates get other jobs - usually, but not always, in health or caring professions, or management, and with nurses in such demand, there are always going to be options for you. Do be aware that even this doesn't necessarily guarantee you can get the exact nursing job you want exactly where you want though - some flexibility in type of job and location will still help your career.

What about your long term prospects?

Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.

Nursing (non-specific)

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£29k

£29k

£30k

£30k

£30k

£30k

Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.

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This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).

This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.

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This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.

You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.

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Post-six month graduation stats:

This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.

It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.

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Graduate field commentary:

The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show

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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?

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