BA (Hons) Social Work

• Graduate ready to register with Social Work England to use the legal protected title of Social Worker.*
• Gain real-world experience on two diverse placements.
• Learn from social work practitioners and people with lived experience of social work services.
• Be part of a professional community committed to advocacy for social justice.

A BA (Hons) Social Work degree at ARU Peterborough promises to be a transformative journey where your existing skills and values meet academia, and your desire to have a positive impact on society becomes a tangible goal.

Our accredited* Social Work course is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills needed by social workers, blending theoretical knowledge with hands-on practice.

*Subject to Social Work England accreditation.

Upon completion of our BA (Hons) Social Work degree, you will have developed a wide range of academic, practical, and reflective skills that will allow you to move into your chosen graduate career.

The course has been mapped to Social Work England’s Professional Standards and BASW’s Professional Capabilities Framework. This ensures that you will have the requisite knowledge, skills and abilities to apply to register as a qualified social worker with Social Work England upon successful completion of the course.

The majority of graduates from this degree will pursue employment as a social worker in a statutory setting and embark on the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE). These are professional vocational courses supported by employers to promote graduate transition into the sector. Some students may seek employment in wider social work roles in the private, voluntary, and independent sectors.

Although focused on the education of future social work professionals, the degree will also equip you with a range of transferable knowledge and skills (eg communication skills, assessment and problem-solving skills and analytical thinking skills) that could be used in a range of careers.

To support and embed employability within the course we work with our specialist employability team to coordinate employability fairs and talks by local employers that engage our students with the range of opportunities available to them on completion of the course.

Local authority representatives attend annually to talk about their ASYE schemes and graduate roles and offer support by holding mock interviews. We have also held events that have allowed current students to meet with previous students from the course who are now employed locally, and to have discussions with workforce development officers. There is an Employability Officer who can come and speak to you or offer one-to-one tailored support to set out career development plans, discuss future career options, and help you to develop interview and presentation techniques to support graduate job applications.