Developing social work skills for employment
Effective communication skills are vitally important and employers expect Universities to teach these to social work students in preparation for their future professional roles. The following film demonstrates how, using an enquiry-based learning design, students at Birmingham are provided with a broad range of learning and teaching approaches to develop their knowledge around their discipline as well as learning team working, problem solving and critical thinking skills in a safe environment. What this distinctive approach also demonstrates is the commitment Birmingham has to ensure that social work students are as well prepared as possible for the reality of a 21st Century work environment.
Film transcript (PDF)
Course Structure
The MA follows an exciting programme. Committed to social justice, anti-oppressive practice and relationship based social work and drawing upon a number of disciplines informing social work practice, it includes the study of social work values, knowledge, law, theories, methods and skills. Additional electives offer students the opportunity to focus on a particular area of interest and exciting new projects, such as the International Exchange Project, and the award-winning Survivor Arts Project, allow students to move beyond the core curriculum and explore different ways of seeing the world and more creative ways of working.
Year 1
In the first year of the degree you will have the opportunity to develop core academic skills and explore the key strands of social justice and inclusion; research-mindedness and evidence-based learning and practice and; respectful, helpful, critical practice. You will also be introduced to the social and organisational context of social work and will be given the chance to develop practice skills in readiness for your 70 day placement for professional practice learning.
We work in partnership with Birmingham City Council, who provide the majority of the placements, as well as with neighbouring local authorities and a range of voluntary and private sector organisations. The placements on offer are challenging and also very rewarding. You may work in areas such as:
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Child and adolescent mental health
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Domestic violence
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Refugee and asylum
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Housing and welfare
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HIV and Aids
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Child Protection
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Disabilities
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Substance misuse
In addition to your practice placement you will participate in a practice based reflection module designed to help you apply the values, knowledge and skills acquired to the practice setting and in your work with a specific service user group. You will also undertake a module in Social Justice and Inclusion, and will follow a strand of teaching entitled: Respect, Integrity, Critical Perspectives and Helpfulness in Social Work Practice (RICH).
Year 2
In Year 2 you will undertake a further 100 days of professional practice learning which, in line with GSCC requirements, will be with a different service user group in a different agency setting. All students will have the opportunity during at least one of their practice placements to undertake some statutory duties.
In conjunction with this you will again have the opportunity to reflect upon your learning in preparation for and within practice during the Professional Practice Reflection module. Following on from this, the RICH strand of teaching will concentrate on cross-cutting issues for practice around risk and protection, whole-family approaches, collaborative working, and strengths based approaches. You may then select one elective from a range focusing on areas such as:
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Youth justice
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Substance abuse
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Domestic violence
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Learning disabilities
The final module concentrates on research methods and skills and prepares you to develop, conduct and write-up in the form of a dissertation, an individual piece of literature and/or empirical based research in an area of social work you are particularly interested in.