nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

Competetiveness with Third Level Education

NathanHenry

Hi all, I’m a 6th year student looking at doing Psychology for third level. Since there are no level 7 psychology courses to use as a safety net I am putting down Level 8s in The National College of Ireland and Dun Laoighire as they are about 100 points less than the universities. I know Psychology is a very competitive field, would having gone to one of these colleges disadvantage me in terms of career aspirations when competing against those who did their bachelors in a university, I would be planning on doing a masters in a university after so would have more than just the qualification from one of those colleges.
Thanks ðŸ˜Š

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Comments

Jimmy Bottlehead

It won't hold you back one iota. An undergrad is an undergrad, once you get a 2.1 you're in a good position to be accepted to a masters as most require a 2.1

Be aware though, a masters in psychology doesn't really qualify you to do any sort of clinical / therapeutic work... Do you have any idea what you'd like to aim for? Or are you happy to just experience the field as a whole and make your mind up as you go?

SuperRabbit

Psychology through arts/humanities was the other "back door"... that seems to be gone now?

AFAIK A masters in counseling psychology will qualify you to do clinical work as a counseling psychologist, obviously privately but also with the HSE. It is super competitive but there are endless opportunities to volunteer so you can build up experience and give yourself that competitive edge, if clinical work is what you are interested in. Clinical work means working with people as a therapist or something resembling a therapist with a different name, whereas maybe you want to do a masters in educational psychology or research psychology or human resources or :O marketing :O

I still now don't fully get the difference between a clinical psychologist and a counselling psychologist. I guess clinical psychologists can diagnose? Maybe?

I don't know if to be a clinical psychologist you need a PHD, i guess that's what Jimmy was hinting at by saying a masters wouldn't get you work but i've never heard that before (or had and forgot)

Oh i just saw your name is Nathan! I read a while back psych undergrads are about 75% women, that's good! That will help! You help a team be diverse, it's an important thing, especially when you have clients who prefer to work with one gender or the other, they should have both available.

Jimmy Bottlehead

SuperRabbit wrote: »

AFAIK A masters in counseling psychology will qualify you to do clinical work as a counseling psychologist, obviously privately but also with the HSE. It is super competitive but there are endless opportunities to volunteer so you can build up experience and give yourself that competitive edge, if clinical work is what you are interested in. Clinical work means working with people as a therapist or something resembling a therapist with a different name, whereas maybe you want to do a masters in educational psychology or research psychology or human resources or :O marketing :O

SR, while I admire your contributions to the forum, this is another instance of providing incorrect information. Please be mindful of this.

There hasn't been a masters in counselling psychology since 2009 I believe. It is a doctoral level qualification, same as clinical or educational psychology.

Clinical work can refer to differing types of work carried out by counselling, clinical or educational psychologists. It can include psychotherapeutic work, differing kinds of clinical interviewing, risk assessment, psychometric assessment and so on.

Clinical, educational and counselling psychologists work across a broad spectrum of organisations, with the HSE being the largest employer, but also including the Irish Prison Service, organisations such as St Patrick's Mental Health Services, Headway, ABI Ireland, psycho-oncology work etc. Then you can add in national and multi-national organisations with a need for psychologists (including EAP programmes) such as Google, Facebook, etc.

SuperRabbit wrote: »

I still now don't fully get the difference between a clinical psychologist and a counselling psychologist. I guess clinical psychologists can diagnose? Maybe?

I don't know if to be a clinical psychologist you need a PHD, i guess that's what Jimmy was hinting at by saying a masters wouldn't get you work but i've never heard that before (or had and forgot)

Although the two are relatively close due to the work they do and the general skillsets they possess, the key difference tends to be philosophical.
Clinical psychologists traditionally tend to work from a more diagnostic model, and tend to utilise CBT as their therapeutic underpinning.
Counselling psychologists traditionally tend to work from a more humanistic model, and tend to utilise person-centred therapy as their theraputic underpinning.

However, there are clinical psychs who use person-centred approaches, and there are counselling psychs who use only CBT.

You may hear arguments that clinical psychs do assessments, counselling psychs don't - this is untrue. Both professions are trained to the same level.
Similarly, you may hear that clinical psychs work with more serious or pathological clients, counselling psychs work with more shallow issues - again, this is untrue. Both professions are trained to work with all levels of mental health care and presenting issue severity.

And again, all three of the aforementioned psychology specialties require DOCTORAL level training. It's not a PhD (which is strictly research), it is a professional doctorate. This means it incorporates a great deal of professional training, significant time on placement, and also carrying out a Level 10 piece of academic research.

SuperRabbit

M.A. Counselling PsychologyUniversity College Cork www.ucc.ie ?

i have met people with this qualification who currently work in HSE i didn't realize it didn't exist anymore. maybe you told me before and I forgot? There seems to be a lot of places saying that UCC are offering it and they should update their websites

Jimmy Bottlehead

SuperRabbit wrote: »

M.A. Counselling PsychologyUniversity College Corkwww.ucc.ie

Yep. Please, keep going with clicking through on that. Let me know how it goes.

SuperRabbit

Jimmy Bottlehead wrote: »

Yep. Please, keep going with clicking through on that. Let me know how it goes.

i'm sorry i pissed you off

i'm not trying to disagree with you or anything if it seems like i am i'm realy sorry i was just repeating what i'd read online and what i'd heard (or misremembered?) and i did't know the info was out of date, https://www.university-directory.eu/jredirect/83849/Psychology/program-courses/Masters-degrees/154/University+College+Cork+%28UCC%29/IE/2795/Counselling+Psychology%2C+MA%2C+Masters+-+Taught i think it says 2013 there

it's clearly not been updated in ages

Jimmy Bottlehead

SuperRabbit wrote: »

i'm sorry i pissed you off

i'm not trying to disagree with you or anything if it seems like i am i'm realy sorry i was just repeating what i'd read online and what i'd heard (or misremembered?) and i did't know the info was out of date, https://www.university-directory.eu/jredirect/83849/Psychology/program-courses/Masters-degrees/154/University+College+Cork+%28UCC%29/IE/2795/Counselling+Psychology%2C+MA%2C+Masters+-+Taught i think it says 2013 there it's clearly not been updated in ages

No apology required pal, I was a bit arsey. Not everyone is as involved with the field as I am to be fair, so my apologies.

But yeah, it switched from Masters to Doctorate in 2009 I believe. If UCC did run it from 2009-2012 as a masters, I'm unsure how their graduates fared.

sadie9

As long as the BA degree is accredited by The Psychological Society of Ireland it should be OK. https://www.psychologicalsociety.ie
Best of luck with your studies.