masters in social work

Claire123

hi im starting a masters in social work in sept. I would be grateful if you could give me info on the course in general ie hours, work load etc. thanks in advance

Bassfish

Howdie, I'm just finishing first year of the masters. The hours vary week to week because some classes are one offs, and some are only every 2nd week but you could expect roughly 24 hours a week. The workload is relatively heavy but pretty manageable if you keep on top of it. There's alot of work to do when you're on placement so you really have to keep on top of it because it mounts up quickly. It's not the kind of course where you can just skip classes, there is a minimum of 80% attendance which allows for illness etc.
Well done on getting into the course, i know how hard the whole selection process is. I reckon if you're capable of getting into the course, you're capable of completing it successfully. Don't be put off by the heavy looking workload, it's a very well organised course and the essays and other projects are well spread out. Hope you enjoy the course, i am. PM me if there's anything alse ya wanna know

Claire123

Thanks Bass fish for your reply. I appreciate it. I heard that the course it pretty heavy, but its what i really want to do so I am prepared to work at it!! Sorry one last questrion I know that you said that the hours vary from week to week but is it roughly 9-5 monday to fri or is there a half day on the friday? Also is the course examined by continious assessments rather than exams?

Thanks

Bassfish

Half day on friday ya. Don't start til 11 on mondays. there are 2 classes and they have different time-tables and do different subjects at different times of the year to eachother so timetables vary alot. No there's no exams thank god. We do more than enough continuous assessment for them to assess us on.
Keep the questions coming if ya think of them. I don't mind at all.

Claire123

Thanks a million bassfish, I think you have answered all my questions at this stage!! Best of lukc in the last few weeks of college (if your not already finished). I appreciate your replys.
Thanks Claire

pinkycardfairy

i'm going doing the MSW next year as well. Really looking forward to it. just to let you know as well that if your not from Cork and looking for accommodation it seems that the majority of lectures are in the West Gate building in UCC so i would advise to get a place around that area

Bassfish

Ya that's true. There's a few classes near the main campus and the north mall campus too.

Claire123

pinkycardfairy wrote: »

i'm going doing the MSW next year as well. Really looking forward to it. just to let you know as well that if your not from Cork and looking for accommodation it seems that the majority of lectures are in the West Gate building in UCC so i would advise to get a place around that area

Cool thanks for that Pinkycardfairy. Ya I from outside of Cork so i will have to find accommodation. Its good to know that most of our lectures are around the west gate building. ya im really looking forward to the course. UCC seems nice and friendly as well.

laura1987

hi i'm also starting in september was glad you asked those questions! does anyone know if the placement is during the college term or does it run through the summer??

Papa_Lazarou

laura1987 wrote: »

hi i'm also starting in september was glad you asked those questions! does anyone know if the placement is during the college term or does it run through the summer??

I think the placement is during the summer as two of my friends are doing the course and one is working with the probabtion service for the summer while the other is with SVdP.I could be wrong though.

cutymonalisa

laura1987 wrote: »

hi i'm also starting in september was glad you asked those questions! does anyone know if the placement is during the college term or does it run through the summer??

1st year:

Sept - Dec - lectures

Mid Jan - mid April - placement #1 (14 weeks)

Mid April - mid May - lectures

Mid May - mid Sept - Summer off (unless you fail your placement you will be repeating it during this time)

2nd Year:

Mid Sept - Xmas week - placement #2 (14 weeks)

Jan - mid March - lectures

Mid March - end April - thesis

End April/early May - present and submit thesis

You finish up circa first week in May, unless you fail placement #2 - then your repeating it for the summer

Hope this helps - good luck with the course - very enjoyable but be prepared to work hard

Bassfish

That timetable is spot on. Feel free to PM with any Questions

luluslollypop

Claire123 wrote: »

hi im starting a masters in social work in sept. I would be grateful if you could give me info on the course in general ie hours, work load etc. thanks in advance

Hi Claire, I have my interview for MSW in UCC this week and would love any advice you could give me!!! Just generally about the day etc.....

kaerobe

Did you get the MSW?

I got my place but I will defer for the year. Once I figure out how!

k1980

Hi there,
I'm starting the HDip in Social Policy in UCD next month. I'm hoping to get into the Master in Social Work directly afterward. But reading the thread re waiting lists, i'm getting a bit worried. I currently have 300 hrs of voluntary work under my belt. Can anyone recommend what else I could do to improve my chances of getting into the Master first time?
Any advice is much appreciated:)

pinkycardfairy

k1980 wrote: »

Hi there,
I'm starting the HDip in Social Policy in UCD next month. I'm hoping to get into the Master in Social Work directly afterward. But reading the thread re waiting lists, i'm getting a bit worried. I currently have 300 hrs of voluntary work under my belt. Can anyone recommend what else I could do to improve my chances of getting into the Master first time?
Any advice is much appreciated:)

Hi k1980
I am currently starting in my second year of the Social Work Masters in UCC. I dont know wheather you are planning on doing the Masters in UCC or in UCD. I believe the requirements are slightly different.
there are three parts to applying for the MSW in UCC

1. Application form
2. Group interview
3. Individual Interview

Work Experience
In UCC you have to have a minimum of 470 hours of social care/social work/voluntary experience. This can vary. My own experience for this was a mixture of working in a youth center, doing peer mentoring in both secondary school and college level and also working in a drug addiction center. All these were on a voluntary basis. Other people that are on the course with me had been working with elderly, homeless, had done volunteering abroad to name a few. It doesn't matter what it is as long as you can recognise the learning that you got from doing the work and talk about it.

STAGE 1: Application Form
you can find the application form here http://www.ucc.ie/en/media/CKE64SupplementaryFormandRefereesReports.pdf
When I applied you needed to prove that you have done the 470+ hours by getting someone from the place you were working to write a letter on headed paper stating exactly how many hours you did and what was your role there/ duties carried out. I don't think you need to do this any longer but I would do it if you have time as it acts as a mini reference and a great opportunity for people to sing your praises.

You also need to write a piece based on one of the places you worked in( 800 words). As part of my course I did work experience in a drug treatment center were i had to write an essay on it afterward which I used for this section. if you have done something similar I would recommend this as it has been seen by a lecturer and has been corrected and suggested improvements been given. If your starting from scratch i would recommend to take time doing this as it is quite long. N.B make sure any client your discussing is made anonymous

You also need two people to fill out references for you, one is academic the other experience related.This is done by an organisation you have worked with and also be done by a lecturer, again make sure that you get someone to do it that will definalty write good things about you.
There are other general items that need to be added such as a CV, your transcripts etc, so check out the link above. or see more info here http://www.ucc.ie/en/study/postgrad/what/acsss/masters/msw/

STAGE 2: Group Interview

If your application is successful you will proceed to interview stage. the interviews are usually held the start of March. The group interview and the individual interview were on the same day for me but I heard in the past they can be separate. I would recommend wearing a suit or smart "interview clothes". There was about 30 people there the day I went for the interview. we were divided into groups of 5, The first part we were given a case scenario and we had to discuss among ourselves what we would do, with two people supervising our conversation and asking us questions, the answer I gave for this was to empower the service user to help themselves. Make sure your voice is heard in the group as you want to be noticed but don't be pushy either, there is a lot of group work on the course so they want to see that you will be able to work in a group. The supervisors then change to the people who will be interviewing you later. At this point they ask you about your work experience, pick one piece of experience and be able to talk about it, also be able to pick out something that you could have done better/improved on while on work experience.

STAGE 3: Individual interview
For the individual interview you will be asked the regular questions at interview stage such as your work experience etc. You will also be asked why have you applied to do the Masters in UCC? They will also ask if you have done a thesis/dissertation? what did you do it on? and why did you decide to do that topic?. They will also ask you to talk about something in the news that is relevant to social work? At the time I discussed the Murphy report. There not asking to talk about the report specifically but more so how this will effect the role of a social worker!!

If you are successful you should know around April or so. Apologies from the terribly long post but I hope that this helps in your applying. If you have any more questions do not hesitate to ask via this tread or by PM. Don't worry if you are not successful on the first go. its a great experience and will give you the knowledge of how it works for next year. Also don't listen to others if they say your too young or that you don't have solid experience in a specific area. EVERYTHING COUNTS.

sarah88

Hey

Sorry for draging up the thread again, but i'm just trying to organise some accommodation, are most of the classes still in the westgate building as mentioned above?

Thanks in advance:)