Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Applied Social Studies - Professional Social Care

Conois

Hi,

I was just wondering if anyone could help me please.

I'm going to apply to return to college as a mature student for next year (2017). I am hoping to do a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Applied Social Studies - Professional Social Care. My real aim is to eventually be a Social Worker. Now, I'm in a bit of a bind as I have 3 small children and travelling any further than my local College (Carlow IT) would not be possible. I have been told that if I do the above course that I will be on the road to eventually becoming a Social Worker, even though it'll be YEARS!! I sound totally stupid right now but can anyone please tell me if this is indeed true and when I've finished the initial 4 years of the Applied Social Studies - Professional Social Care where do I go from there?

My thought is that if I complete the 4 years my children will be older and therefore I hope to be in a better position to travel.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

LadyMayBelle

Conois wrote: »

Hi,

I was just wondering if anyone could help me please.

I'm going to apply to return to college as a mature student for next year (2017). I am hoping to do a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Applied Social Studies - Professional Social Care. My real aim is to eventually be a Social Worker. Now, I'm in a bit of a bind as I have 3 small children and travelling any further than my local College (Carlow IT) would not be possible. I have been told that if I do the above course that I will be on the road to eventually becoming a Social Worker, even though it'll be YEARS!! I sound totally stupid right now but can anyone please tell me if this is indeed true and when I've finished the initial 4 years of the Applied Social Studies - Professional Social Care where do I go from there?

My thought is that if I complete the 4 years my children will be older and therefore I hope to be in a better position to travel.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Having an undergrad degree in applied social studies is an excellent leg up to becoming a social worker. At the mo, only Cork and Dublin offer undergrad social work courses, whereas those, and Galway offer the masters. Tough to get on, so I would suggest checking the individual requirements for the Masters courses you have your eye on (academically you're fine, just make sure you have the social care hours too).

It is a long road, but one most of us SWers take- doing the masters! You woudl need to travel to either Dublin, Cork or Galway for the masters tho, they are full time and it's an absolute must you attend. Placement wise, you might be lucky to get something closer to home, but the rest of the time youll be in college.

Good luck!

Conois

Thank you so much for your reply! I have been researching and saw that I'd have to travel in the long run alright, not sure it'll be doable but will have to as I'm 36 years old working in a job I detest and don't want to regret later that I didn't at least try. Thanks again:)

Owryan

Hi, i'm in a similar situation to yourself, a mature student with 3 young kids. I'm in year 3 of a social care course in Carlow and want to go on to do social work.

The advise i was given was to do the four years to an honours degree and then get 2 years experience before applying for a masters in social work. You will have 2 practice placements so try get one of them in an area that will allow you to experience some aspect of social work.