Social Work
About this course
Would you like to make a real difference to the lives of individuals, families and communities? Would you like to prevent harm, neglect and abuse?
The course has a long standing history of delivering social work training going back to the late 1980’s. We have a small and friendly team with a great
wealth of experience covering a range of areas of expertise. We have small teaching groups and offer a high level of tutorial and academic support to students.
Students also benefit from regular sessions presented by service user and carer groups. Service user and carer input to the programme is integral to its design and delivery for which it has been commended.
Current social work practitioners assist in the delivery of modules by virtue of the well-established relationship between the college and social work agencies.
Students complete placements within social work settings of 70 days in year 2 and 100 days in year 3. The majority of placements are in Worcestershire
and will often require students to be able to travel to and whilst on placement.
The course is validated by Birmingham City University (BCU). On completing the programme, students receive their degree from BCU and are eligible to apply to register as a social worker.
The course is also run in accordance with the West Midlands Social Work Teaching Partnership, an accredited social work teaching partnership funded by the Department for Education to strengthen the quality of education and training for social work students and practitioners across the West Midlands. The Partnership is led by Principal Social Workers, Workforce Development Leads and Senior Academics across Children's and Adult Services. As a result the partnership aims to raise the standard and consistency for entrants onto social work programmes and strengthen the links between academia and practice to support the development of research. It also aims to enhance the pre- and post-qualifying social work curriculum to reflect contemporary research and practice and ensure students undertake high quality statutory placement and ASYE programmes. These aims help to develop the students’ knowledge, skills and experience to practice as Newly Qualified Social Workers.
You will be taught by experienced and enthusiastic staff, who are qualified and registered social workers. All our staff maintain active links with partner agencies and practitioners.
The course is supported by online materials via our Virtual Learning Environment and may be supplemented by online delivery.
Modules
YEAR 1 (Level 4):
- Lifespan Development
- Study Skills for Social Work
- Law and Social Policy for Social Work
- Understanding Equality and Diversity
- Developing Skills
YEAR 2 (Level 5):
- Law and Safeguarding in Practice
- Practice 1
- Assessment and intervention
- Learning from Research and Evidence
YEAR 3 (Level 6):
- Contemporary Themes in Social Work
- Critical Reflective Practice
- The Developing Professional Practitioner
- Practice 2
Assessment methods
Students are assessed using a variety of methods including assignments, individual and group presentations, direct observations and practice portfolio.
Tuition fees
Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:
Extra funding
Heart of Worcestershire College is offering Boost Awards to all first year full time HE students. If you are applying for your first year of your first Higher Education course and have "Firmly" accepted an offer of a place on a HE programme at Heart of Worcestershire College as your first choice (not insurance) you may be eligible. To be eligible you must meet the national criteria: • Normally resident in England • Have a household income of less than £25,000 (as assessed through Student Finance England) • Self funding, not sponsored by an employer, the NHS nor the Training and Development Agency for Schools. Please note that due to the limited nature of these funds meeting the criteria does not equate to an entitlement to the Boost award. Each application will be considered by the panel of senior staff based on the information provided.
What students say
We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.
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.
Social work
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
After graduation
We don't have more detailed stats to show you in relation to this subject area at this university but read about typical employment outcomes and prospects for graduates of this subject below.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Social work
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
£28k
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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Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF):
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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:
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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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