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BA (Hons)

Social Work

Degree Apprenticeship – Level 6

Attendance

Campus

Start

Duration

3 Years

Start

September 2023

Delivery

Campus Taught

Study our exciting Social Work Degree Apprenticeship. It's designed in partnership with social work employers, service users and carers. This will help you develop competency and capability in frontline social work.

The programme allows you to apply your social work learning in the workplace. This enhances your understanding, competence and confidence. This is a generic social work qualification which will equip you to work in a wide range of settings including:

Children and families
Adult services
Mental health
Disability
Offender services

In year one you will to think about how you will prepare for social work practice. You'll gain a lot of knowledge on social work theory, methods, skills and values. You'll develop an understanding of legal principles and safeguarding. You will have opportunities to develop your communication skills though experiential learning. Learn about social justice and increase your theoretical knowledge base across the life course.

In year two you'll study three specialist modules. These will allow you to think critically about working with children, young people and families. As well as adults and those who experience mental health challenges. In year three you'll learn more about relationship-based practice and research. You'll gain a greater understanding of how research informs social work practice.

You'll get two placement opportunities, organised by your employer. One of these will be in a contrasting setting and will take place in year two. This ensures that you have experienced working with a different service user group. The other placement takes place in your final year. This includes working alongside social workers and will emphasise on statutory social work. Ensuring that you feel prepared for qualifying as a social worker.

As well as academic learning, you will get lots of opportunities to learn and develop in the workplace. Your Outreach Educator will work with your workplace mentor. They will identify learning opportunities appropriate to you and your developmental journey.

Why study with us

Ranked in the top five in the North West for Graduate Prospect Outcomes. Good University Guide 2023.
Ranked in the top three in the North West for Research Quality. Good University Guide 2023.
83% of Social Work's research is world-leading and internationally excellent. Research Excellence Framework 2021.

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Why choose a Degree Apprenticeship?

With a Degree Apprenticeship you get a great qualification and a career boost. It’s the perfect opportunity to develop your skills and knowledge through work-based learning, as you earn.

You’ll grow and nurture your talent through the forward-thinking businesses we collaborate with to offer a Degree Apprenticeship.

Who is this course for?

You’ll want to gain professional qualification and work as a social worker with a wide range of opportunities in sectors. This includes local authorities, charities, voluntary organisations and private businesses. You will need to be in suitable employment.

You’ll recognise the diversity of options available to you in the profession. Social work within adult services or with young people may be your aim. Or, you may want to gain your social work qualification to work in mental health, disability or offender services.

Whichever area of practice you choose, you will want to know how to work safely and effectively with people who use services. You will be passionate about achieving a high standard of social work practice. This will positively impact on individuals’ lives, their families and the wider community.

You'll want to develop as a practitioner and the opportunity to learn. You'll want to apply the knowledge, skills and behaviours needed to maintain professional social work standards. These are set by Social Work England and These standards apply in all social work roles, whatever the setting.

To achieve your qualification, you will enjoy off the job training. Most weeks you will engage with university teaching. You'll study a range of exciting modules. This will be via lectures, seminars and workshops but on other occasions you will undertake directed study.

The rest of the employed time, as an apprentice you will be in the workplace undertaking learning opportunities. This will prepare you for social work practice. You'll work alongside social care professionals and social workers. This will help you develop your knowledge, skills and values. If this is not available on a day to day basis your employer will need to arrange other learning opportunities. This needs to be akin to a practice learning placement.

We have a very well-established system of providing apprentices with tailored support in the workplace. This is from an Outreach Educator who is a member of the academic team. They will meet with you often to support your aspirations and needs. And they will help you to check your progress. As well as maintaining a portfolio throughout the course so that you are ready for End Point Assessment. This assessment is an integrated part of the degree, and you will undertake it in the final months.

Throughout your time with us, you will have access to an extensive array of learning resources. This is includes on and off campus.

The course is designed and delivered in collaboration with social work employers, service users and carers. This ensures that those who graduate from the University of Central Lancashire are ready for social work practice.

What you'll do

You’ll benefit from our incredible experience as the largest provider of social work education in the UK - and a wealth of staff experience and resources - 79% of our staff are registered Social Workers.
You'll work with world-class academics who keep up to date with the latest developments in social work practice by also continuing to spend time in practice
We work collaboratively with both you and your employer through our Outreach Educator and Programme Leader.

Module overview

Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of our published course information. However, our programmes are subject to ongoing review and development. Changing circumstances may cause alteration to, or the cancellation of, courses. Changes may be necessary to comply with the requirements of accrediting bodies or revisions to subject benchmarks statements. As well as to keep courses updated and contemporary, or as a result of student feedback. We reserve the right to make variations if we consider such action to be necessary or in the best interests of students.

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Academic expertise

As a graduate from our Social Work Degree Apprenticeship programme you’ll be eligible to join the Social Work Register and practice as a social worker.

This is a generic award so it leads you directly into a wide number of job choices: you can work in a range of settings including children and families, adult services, mental health, disability and offender services, as well as many others.

When you qualify as a social worker you will be able to progress your career within local authorities, charities, voluntary organisations and private businesses.

Your role will be to support people to achieve the most positive outcomes possible in their lives, and you will ensure that individuals are safeguarded from harm

You can choose to work in a statutory role or a non-statutory position. In a statutory role, you will be directly applying the legislation that you have studied on the course, in order to protect vulnerable people in society

You may opt for a non-statutory role, in which you are also working with vulnerable people and their families, in challenging situations. You will use your knowledge of the law but not will not directly enforce it yourself here.

You may want to work in a specialist role, using your knowledge and qualification to support people in crisis situations; or you might choose to work in a service aimed at early-intervention and preventing crisis.

Typical settings include work with young people, people who experience domestic abuse, homeless individuals, people who misuse drugs and alcohol, older adults, people with learning disabilities, people with physical disabilities, offenders, people with mental health conditions, and young people not attending school

Wherever you work, you will apply your learning about how to build professional relationships, and how to make informed, evidence-based judgements which can sometimes be well-received and sometimes difficult for those whom they concern.

Your learning about communication and interpersonal skills, as well as your understanding of human development will support you to do this effectively, and you can apply social work methods and theories in a range of job roles to suit your interests

All apprentices sit an independent end-point assessment (EPA), assessing all the knowledge, skills and behaviours you’ve learnt throughout your apprenticeship.

Full-time apprentices will typically spend 36 months on the programme working towards the Apprenticeship Standards, with the EPA taking place in the last six months of the programme.

The assessment that the apprentice is ready to undertake the EPA is called the Gateway Assessment. This takes place at around 30 months.

Readiness to commence the EPA is confirmed by the employer, with support from the University.

End-point-assessments are graded and you’ll get an apprenticeship certificate after you’ve successfully completed your EPA. It’s a test that’s valued by current and future employers.

The University has many learning resources both on and off campus – including online access to other libraries and information services (which may be closer to you) through schemes such as Sconul Access and an Inter-Library Loans Service.

There’s also an information skills training programme, IT help and advice from LIS Customer Support.

And you’ll be able to remotely link to the university’s network account, the library's electronic resources and some core software applications.

As you’ll be working with vulnerable groups of individuals, including children, you’ll need a satisfactory Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service clearance (formerly termed CRB). We’ll be able to guide you through this process once you have been offered a conditional place of study here.

If your Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check proves to be unsatisfactory, your offer of a place may be withdrawn.

If you’ve already enrolled on a course and your DBS check subsequently discloses a criminal conviction, you may be asked to withdraw from the course even if you have already started. If you think your DBS check will disclose a previous conviction, please contact the course leader for advice as not all convictions may preclude you from continuing with the course.

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Information for employers

An apprentice is employed to do a real job while studying for a formal qualification, usually for one day a week at one of our campuses. This course meets Institute for Apprenticeship Standards and your apprentice will have the knowledge and skills required to succeed in a social work role upon qualification.

Apprentices follow an approved study programme, which means they’ll gain a nationally recognised qualification at the end of their apprenticeship.

The delivery of the course is designed to be as flexible as possible in order to best suit the needs and preferences of individual employers as well as apprentices. All apprentices will study a broad range of modules designed to develop the skills, knowledge and behaviours needed for professional practice. A practice placement module can be undertaken in a variety of forms in Year 2.

20% of the programme is off the job study, typically a day a week engaging with University-based teaching and learning; and for the rest of the employed time, the apprentice will be in the workplace applying their learning alongside other professionals and gradually enhancing their practice. Where this opportunity is not available on a day to day basis, the employer arranges additional learning opportunities akin to a practice learning placement.

Benefits to the employer

Enhance your workforce by developing existing employees or recruiting new staff to the position of Social Work Apprentice.
Improve staff retention and loyalty by providing them with professional development and a high quality Honours degree.
If your pay bill is over £3m, you’re required to pay the Apprenticeship Levy at 0.5% of pay bill to HMRC. The funding pays for training and assessment (not wages) by government-approved providers.

Award: BA (Hons)
Level: 6
Location/Campus: Preston
Duration: The course is three years in duration.
Fees: Tuition Fees are paid by funding through the Employer and/or Government via the Apprenticeship Levy, meaning that you as the learner do not pay the standard tuition fee rates. Students on Degree Apprenticeships do not qualify for any funding from Student Finance.
SFA Course Directory: View details

The Funding band for the Social Worker Degree Apprenticeship is £23,000.

Funding bands range from £1,500 to £27,000 and sets the maximum amount of digital funds an employer who pays the levy can use towards an individual apprenticeship.

This course is based in the School of Social Work, Care and Community located in the Faculty of Health and Care

For information on possible changes to course information, see our essential and important course information

You can find regulations and policies relating to student life at the University of Central Lancashire on our student contract page

Social Work

Why study with us

Why choose a Degree Apprenticeship?

Who is this course for?

What you'll do

Module overview

View the course facilities

Academic expertise

Fees and funding

Future careers and job role

Learning and end point assessment

Further information

Vacancies

Information for employers

Benefits to the employer

Key information and Funding

How to access