Change of career advice?

elisebutt65

Just wondering if anyone can offer advice, guidance or past experience help.!
Bit of history: I got a first in Business Management in 2007 and then my PGCE in 2008 and for the last 4 years have been teaching in FE. The last 2 years I have been mainly a personal tutor and this year I am contracted to only teach 4 lessons per week and the rest of my time (26 hours) is taken up with the tutorial role. I have found that I am enjoying the personal interaction with the students more and more and am now looking to take this further, in that I am seriously considering going into Social Work.!

I have started to research this and have found that I would need to do a 2 year MA in Social Work (very possible to do) and 200 hours practical experience. I know that a lot of councils are crying out for qualified Social Workers just from a quick browse around the web.!

Just wondering whether anyone has any pearls of wisdom about this? I know it won't be an easy job but having spent the last year managing teenagers through various personal crises (siblings dying, parents ill, being made homeless and one harrowing case of a student with a terminal illness) I think I have the fortitude and capability to carry the job out to the best of my ability. I'm not looking at this through rose tinted glasses, I know some of it will be awful & the caseloads will be enormous.!

So any advice?

TIA.!

Dunroamin

Could you do some voluntary work with one or more client group, either during the holidays or in the evenings? Sorting out students' problems is very different from being a social worker.

sweetdaisy

Dunroamin wrote: »

Could you do some voluntary work with one or more client group, either during the holidays or in the evenings? Sorting out students' problems is very different from being a social worker.

I agree with Dunroamin.

I work in housing with homeless young people and I would try and get some experience of working with homeless, learning disabilities, mental health, substance misuse organisations etc to gain a broader view of social care and to increase skills and knowledge of issues affecting young people.

You will find that there are some areas of Social Work i.e. Children's Services which deal with Child Protection where there are many jobs advertised and this may be due to the workload being greater, more stressful and challenging than other areas of Social Work.

Either way, whichever area of Social Work you go into, it is not a typical '9-5' job and involves working late, taking part in on-call, dealing with crisis etc. It is both challenging and rewarding at the same time.

Wishing you all the best in your change of career.

flutterbyuk25

During your SW qualification you will more than likely be required to do contact hours with different groups to the ones you work with, e.g. elderly. SW degree/MA is very full on, and here there aren't that many jobs for newly qualified SWers.

I do a similar job to you now, and I also mentor student SWers as part of my job role. A lot of them find their placements very difficult as it is not the clientele that they want to work with. And the amount of acedemic work they do is shocking! I was completing my PGCE whilst mentoring one, and definitely had it easier!

But either way, good luck in your future. I second the volunteer experience. And try find a practising SW to speak with to get the details of the job role, stuff that you may not be aware of.

x