dd100 with OU whats your experience of jobs in psychology/youth work?

ANNIEHAHA

Hi I am doing DD100, Introduction to social sciences with the OU since Feb this year, with the intention of going onto psychology.

However, I have stumbled upon youth working jobs being advertised and wondered if anyone could tell me their experiences in this field, or psychology experiences.

Like what you studied and the job it led you to and how easy it was to find a job, and what it entails, just general careers advice really.

As I am now unsure which way to go and would like to get a job at the end of my studies. I appreciate your time.

melancholly

http://www.bps.org.uk/careers/becoming/becoming_home.cfm

this website may help. i would say that any work as a 'psychologist' will require postgraduate training - a basic undergrad degree is not enough. also it's important to know that a psychology degree will usually have strong cognitive, neuroscience and statistic components, so just be sure you know what you're getting into (a lot of students don't necessarily expect or want to do the breadth of topics covered!).

Gemmzie

I did A Level Psychology and am currently a trainee/student Youth Worker

The two overlap slightly but I would definitely recommend getting some youth work experience before committing to a course. Some people love it, others hate it.

All youth work jobs from 2010 will require the JNC qualification (which you can do through the OU but you must be in practise to get it). The NYA (http://www.nya.org.uk/) has lots of details about starting salaries, job spec etc. Not sure where you are in the country but several areas are recruiting across the UK at the moment.

The course for youth work has elements of psychology, social history, sociology, communications and social policy.

Anything else I can answer for you?

ANNIEHAHA

Thanks so much for your help, there is a job I have seen advertised for a trainee youth worker, I was thinking I could continue studying while working

I was thinking of calling her to find out what it entails, as I wouldnt want to let anyone down if I did not like it.

Could you tell me more about your job and what you do if possible? just to get an insight from the people doing it would be great.

ANNIEHAHA

Psychology is what interests me which is what led me to dd100 in feb as a first course I am also doing level 1 intro to psychology, I am finding dd100 very interesting which I didnt think I would.

I know psychology is quite hard to get a job in as everyone wants experience, I live half hour fron Norwich

ANNIEHAHA

I also have 2 kids aged 7 and 8