MA in Social Studies -WIT

Sweetie-Pie

Hi,

Has anyone completed the MA IN Social Studies course at WIT? If so, what are your thoughts/opinions on it? Did you find it interesting/ challenging etc?

I have been offered a conditional place on the programme and am considering whether to accept it or not.
If you have done the course or know someone who has, what career opportunities are there after it?
I have an interest in the area of disabilities (equality and discrimination) and inclusive educational/employment/community living opportunities, but I am open to other areas and career prospects too.

I would be grateful for any information/advice you can offer at all.

Thanks in advance

keeley 4

I'm in the final year of this course in WIT. If your interested in working with disability thats one of the areas that you can work in once the course is completed, other areas include working with refugees, addiction, homelessness, residential care and the travelling community.

you will get two opportunities to do work placement on this course for 13 weeks so your not in college too much and you get to see what working with different groups is like because sometimes people think they want to work with certains groups such as working with individuals with disabilities but then after practically working in these areas they change their minds. The course itself is easy enough it would have as high a fail rate as tougher courses like accounting. I would definatly recommend it.

Sweetie-Pie

Hi Keeley,

Thanks for your reply. It's great to get info on the course on a first person basis, from someone who's done it!.. Much appreciated!

Sounds great, I didn't know there was opportunity for a work placement so that makes it all the more appealing. Are the two 13 week placements at the end of the year?
How many hours of lectures/tutorials on average do you do, and are the classes scattered throughout the week, or all around particular days, in your experience? I will be commuting you see and live about an hour away, so be good to know.

I imagine the scope for job opportunities after completion is broad enough, is it? I know it's more of an academic course, so would many people go into the social policy areas aswell as into social care?

Thanks again

keeley 4

It depends on which of the social care courses you are doing I know there have been some changes since I commenced my course which is the level 8 honours degree thats 3 years long. If this is the course level you are doing the work placement is spread out so in second year you spend the first half of the year in placement (semester 1) and then the second half of the year on placement in thrid year (semester two). No matter what level of the course your doing the placement is spread out.
In first year the average amount of hours we had was about 20 at the most this increases a bit in second year but you'd never be in 9-5 but in terms of travelling and timetable its hard to judge because your timetable will change every semester (every 3 or 4 months) but I do have to say a lot of the students who travelled up and down for our course used to find it frustrating because the classes sometimes are really spread out so for example on a wednesday you might have an hour long tutorial at 9 am and then might not have a class again untill 3pm so if your travelling that can be a bit annoying but generally WIT would try and help the mature students and those travelling to maybe switch their tutorials sometimes but its just the luck of the draw some classes didn't have problems like that with their timetables.
yeah there is a good few jobs you can try after the course majority of students end up working with disability, ex offenders, addiction, the travelling community and youth work. to be honest I don't know much about the social policy aspect because I have very little interest in social policy it is one of our modules in the course but that propably is an avenue you can take after the course but I just wouldn't know about it because it'd be the last thing I'd be doing but I'm sure its possible to do it as part of a masters. Hope this info is ok for you if you need anything else thats no problem wish I had someone tell me a bit about my course before I started! Oh and by the way you might know this already but social care is thought in the college street campus WIT not the main WIT campus theres a bit of a difference if your getting accommodation or anything!

pmrc

hi,
When you wrote "it would have as high a fail rate as tougher courses like accounting. "
what do you mean 50% fail rate or 25% ????
I applied and got the social care course . I am a mature student with 3 kids. I have worked as a SNA for a few years. Is it much more difficult than the FETAC level 6 in special needs??

keeley 4

I don't know the statistics on the fail rates or anything but out of the 100 or so ppl in my class i've never heard of anyone dropping out because of the course being too hard or because they failed too many things just that i have heard of ppl doing accounting and business who fail or drop out a bit more. I didn't do any course before this one but I imagine if anything it will help you, a few of the ppl in my class did plc's before the actual course and found it helped them.

About 50% of the social care course are mature students and i know in WIT there is gr8 support offered to them and I'd say you'll find it handy enoguh like its not a really hard course once you put ur head down you'll be grand and the lecturers honestly will help you as much as they can and if you fail exams theres always repeats!

enoughalready

Hi all,

I was just wondering has any WIT student have up-to-date information on the MA in Social Studies course (level 9). Could you give me a basic low down on what subjects are covered and what the timetable is like? Is placement still part of the course? Interested in work with the aging population, so the elderly would be a key interest to me.

Any light on above matters would be fab!

Cheers in advance...