Social Work
Entry requirements
A level
112 UCAS Tariff points
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
112 UCAS Tariff points
UCAS Tariff
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About this course
**Your first step towards a career as a registered social worker this course equips you with the knowledge skills and resilience needed to improve the lives of vulnerable adults children and families.**
Approved by Social Work England this degree offers graduates eligibility to join the professional register after which you can pursue a career in social work across a range of settings.
The course prepares you to work in a rapidly changing complex and unpredictable sector offering the most up-to-the-minute knowledge skills and practice. It combines work-placement experience practical skills development and academic study with a focus on applying theory to practice.
You first study the foundations of social work including social policy; human growth and development; relevant legislation for professional practice; and working with people. Later units explore issues contexts and interventions in social work along with two work-placement opportunities and a final-year research project.
**Why choose this course?**
- The quality of our teaching ranked top for student satisfaction out of 77 HE institutions offering the subject (Complete University Guide 2023)
- Explore every aspect of the professional social work role; how it relates to other areas; and the ethical challenges of balancing initiative with accountability
- Progress with the support of academic staff who have all been practising social workers some of whom continue to practise alongside their academic work
- Benefit from the University of Bedfordshire’s new Health & Social Care Academy run in partnership with local councils and NHS Trusts to recruit and train the next generation of health and social care workers
- As a graduate you can apply for professional registration as a qualified social worker with Social Work England
- Open up career paths across a variety of sectors including local authorities the NHS education authorities prison service private agencies and voluntary organisations
Modules
Areas of study may include:
- Social work process
- Human growth and development
- Foundations for social work practice
- Diversity and difference
- Professional practice in a range of social work and related agencies
- Social work theory and methods of intervention
- Working within and across different welfare contexts
- Understanding the experiences of people who use services
Every effort is made to ensure this information is accurate at the point of publication on the UCAS website. For the most up-to-date information, please refer to our website.
Tuition fees
Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:
The Uni
Bedford Campus
Luton Campus
School of Society, Community and Health
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
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
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.
Social work
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.
Top job areas of graduates
We're short of social workers - so if you want a degree that is in demand, then this could be the one for you! There's a shortage of social workers all over the UK, and graduates can specialise in specific fields such as mental health or children's social work. If you decide social work is not for you, then social work graduates also often go into management, education, youth and community work and even nursing. Starting salaries for this degree can reflect the high proportion of graduates who choose a social work career - social work graduates get paid, on average, more than graduates overall, but not all options pay as well as social work. This is also an unusual subject in that London isn't one of the more common places to find jobs - so if you want to get a job near to your home or your university this might be worth thinking about.
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
£31k
£32k
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:
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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