BA (honrs) in criminal Justice

xtina85

Hi, I am a newcommer to this so forgive me if i'm completly in the wrong place!
I am a graduate of Exercise and Health Studies recently made redundant and I have realised that although i am interested in exercise and health it doesnt pay well and the highest you can go is be a manager or run your own business which i'm not in the position to do right now.

I want to go back to college and I am concidering my options at the moment. Criminal Justice and psychology are area's I have always been interested in but never taught I had it in me to study them. I can't go further then WIT because of personal circumstances to study.

I would love some advice or information about these courses from actual past graduates or current students or even lecturers with regard to how easy and more to the point quickly you can acctually start working and earning money. I have read the career prospects on both courses but they are very broad,too broad.

I was caught once before and now have a pretty pointless degree that I cant do much with, I dont want that to happen again.
Any advice or information would be appriciated

munsterman2008

Criminal Justice: Don't do it.
Career wise unless your going for the Guards it won't be any good. And even if that is the case, having any other degree would carry the same weight with your application, difference being the other degree's would also open up other career paths.
The postgrad opportunities aren't any good either; the trend being people either go for Criminology masters, Social care etc which to be honest you would have been better doing Social studies degree in the first place for that..

Think of what career you would like, then do the course to get you there. Not the other way around.

sparkling sea

Wouldn't recommend it either although I really enjoyed the course

Criminal Justice Studies has 4 strands or disciplines, Law, Business, Sociology and Psychology however Ethics and Research also play nearly as big a part in this course. While you can learn quite alot about everything you are really qualified in nothing. Also if you want to do well in this course you have to work really hard, I know you have to work hard in every course but this course is really diverse. Of the first year graduates of CJS I don't know of anyone working in the specific area. Most people went on to do Masters.

If you are looking for a job, anything related to science is a good choice or even computer forensics. Applied Social Studies is also a very good area if you are a guy, however if you are girl steer clear, it seems almost impossible to get a job in this area if your a girl especially a job with prospects.

If you already have a degree why dont you just do a conversion course - it only takes a year, although a few courses take two years - sorry just remembered, I think you have to pay but I am not a hundred percent sure of this.

Psychology would be a much better bet as it is a pure psychology course, so I would imagine it has better prospects.

If you think you would enjoy lecturing you could possibly consider CJS but I would think you would have to be prepared to go all the way to Ph.D level before you'd get a decent job with any kind of prospects, but then again you would still be better doing a more specific course as you would still have other opportunities open to you

xtina85

Thank you both for the advice, thats exactly what I was afraid of in taking on this course.
Munsterguy if it was as easy as that I would be sorted by now the problem is im still trying to figure out what it is i want to do.

Sparkling sea, why do you say that its more difficult for a woman to get a job after completing a social studies qualification? Funny you mentioned that acctually because it was another option I was looking into! I am a woman by the way :)

munsterman2008

Because at the moment it is predominantly female social care workers. Males are required for certain aspects of the job as well too. Similarly, males interested in nursing would be in a good position as opposed to women who make up the bulk of the jobs and the people studying for it.

sparkling sea

Only a tiny minority of Social Studies students are male - I would say about 95% of students are female.

As Munsterman 2008 has said there are men needed in Social Care, but there are few qualified men. There are an awful lot of women qualified in this area though.

brian plank

xtina85 wrote: »

I was caught once before and now have a pretty pointless degree that I cant do much with, I dont want that to happen again.
Any advice or information would be appriciated

if the degree you have is at the same level or higher than the one you want to do you wont be entitled to either BTEA or the VEC grant. just something to be aware of.

sparkling sea

You might be entitled to a grant but it depends - citizens information site states
-Are a mature student, who in the academic year in question is either entering in order to complete an approved course at undergraduate level for the first time or re-entering in order to pursue or complete an approved course at postgraduate level for the first time or already hold a postgraduate qualification and are re-entering to progress to a further postgraduate course which represents progression. (In order to be considered a mature student, you need to be at least 23 years of age on January 1 of the year you enter your chosen course). .

Also you maybe be eligible under the BTEA, again this dependant on a number of factors but I wouldn't write it off completely

brian plank

sparkling sea wrote: »

You might be entitled to a grant but it depends - citizens information site states
-Are a mature student, who in the academic year in question is either entering in order to complete an approved course at undergraduate level for the first time or re-entering in order to pursue or complete an approved course at postgraduate level for the first time or already hold a postgraduate qualification and are re-entering to progress to a further postgraduate course which represents progression. (In order to be considered a mature student, you need to be at least 23 years of age on January 1 of the year you enter your chosen course). .

Also you maybe be eligible under the BTEA, again this dependant on a number of factors but I wouldn't write it off completely

the highlighted bit is all that matters. unless your moving up a level i.e you have a level 6 and want to do a level 7 degree your not entitled.

i started back this year and cant get any grant because im doing a course at the same level. they would rather you sit at home on the dole.

sparkling sea

When I did the my CJS degree there was a woman on the course with a BA(Hons) in Applied Social Studies.
She managed to get a grant but she said there have to be a 5 year period between the end of the last degree and the start of a new degree.

xtina85

yeah it is rediculas, the people who try get up off their ass and do something productive get little or no help. It's like I'm falling through all the cracks. The only course I can do which is higher is a masters in sport physcology and that won't get me where I want to be. Either that or I would have to apply for a master's by research and thats very difficult to get approved!!
I tell you something, if I had good career advice from the "guidance councellor" in secondary school I probably wouldn't be in this pickle. My career guideance was an absolute joke and the teacher never showed up never mind advised us !! Its a big problem that in my opinion needs to be addressed.
I will talk to C.Info and see what they say about the matter but the CAO has to be done shortly so I'll have to do it quick smart.

Fea.

I've just completed first year in CJS and I have to say I've loved every minute of it. Its extremely diverse and I had never attempted anything like this before. What I did find though that I am leaning more towards law and thinking that I probably should have applied for that instead. I'm still not entirely sure what it is I'll end up with when I leave, I have no intention of joining the guards lol too long in the tooth for that unfortunately.

What did you go with in the end OP?