In response to criticism about their relationship with the public, police forces have been seeking to increase the proportion of graduates within their ranks. The Metropolitan Police for instance has for some time now operated a graduate entry scheme which seeks to include numbers of women and members of ethnic minority groups. Other police forces in conjunction with universities operate in service degree programmes of which social science teaching is a substantial component. Each of these is an indication that a sociology degree constitutes a recognised qualification for a police career. Voluntary Agencies Social workers do a very responsible job and will need to be trained, skilled and appropriately qualified before going into practice. The route to this is through an honours or postgraduate degree in social work which has been approved by the GSCC and which combines theoretical learning with 200 days of assessed practice in a range of settings.

The PhD project may be of the student´s own devising or it may be specified as part of a larger research programme with funding provided and the student taking part in a research team. Either way it will consist of a major piece of research to be written up as a thesis in a way that is at least partly original and makes a contribution to knowledge. through a taught course leading to a postgraduate certificate (as in the case of the PGCE or GSCC mentioned above), a postgraduate diploma (PGDip) or a masters degree (MA, MSc, MBA or equivalent). These courses are widely advertised and are normally focused upon a particular aspect of sociology with a view to subsequent career activity. through a PhD. As with the MPhil funding is by some form of scholarship, bursary or studentship for which there will be fierce competition unless the student is self-funding. Postgraduate students according to their experience and achievements may register directly for a PhD or may first register for an MPhil with the option of transfer after the satisfactory completion of the first year of study, as described above. If you plan to study for a PGCE, you will need to ensure that the subjects you study as part of your degree will allow you entry to a PGCE course, as there are some restrictions. Talk to the Admissions Tutor of the course for more advice.The social work degree is a generic degree which aims to prepare students to work across a range of service user groups. Students must have experience: All students must undergo assessed preparation to ensure their safety to undertake practice learning prior to their first placement. This will vary across universities but must include the opportunity to shadow an experienced social worker and the opportunity to develop a greater understanding of the experience of service users. Department of Health requirements for Social Work degree training. Students who achieve the best results during their undergraduate course may get the chance to go on to postgraduate research for higher degree with the aim of making a career in higher education either as a lecturer combining teaching with research or as a specialist researcher. However, resources for this are scarce and therefore competition is fierce. As an alternative the increasing demand for postgraduate qualifications has been met by an increase in the number of masters programmes that are available.

Large companies take in graduate management trainees according to their current requirements. Therefore the intake for any particular company may vary from year to year but careers fairs are held at which most wish to be represented. Despite the enormous growth in business studies degrees other courses are evaluated according to their attributes. You can access the DOH's full list of universities which have been approved to offer social work degree courses and the type of courses they are approved to offer. of statutory social work tasks involving legal interventions (this does not mean that the student has to have a statutory placement, but must have opportunities to gain experience of statutory work).From 2003, professional qualifying training for social workers in England changed to a degree in social work approved by the General Social Care Council ( GSCC). The diploma in social work and all other predecessor social work qualifications will continue to be recognised as valid social work qualifications. Most qualified social workers are employed by local authority social services departments but there are alternatives. Entry to the probation service, and work in family care, ethnic minority relations, juvenile justice, shelters for the homeless, residential care, equal opportunities, etc., varies enormously but clearly a professional social work qualification is a considerable asset.

Students studying for a social work qualification at either undergraduate or post-graduate level may be eligible to receive a bursary and contribution to their fees.The MSc in Social Research is now a necessary accompaniment to PhD programmes but the training is also available to graduates going into other types of research. Additionally there is a wide range of masters programmes aimed at those specialisations into which sociology graduates go. The proliferation of undergraduate degree programmes has tended to raise the stakes so to speak and a postgraduate qualification is often made desirable as a result. Graduate Entry into Management The majority of courses are three-year full-time courses, although there are some part-time courses. Postgraduate courses may be delivered full-time over two years. Social work helps people to live more successfully within their local communities by helping them find solutions to their problems. To succeed, social workers must work not only with clients but their families and friends as well as working closely with other organisations including the police, NHS, and schools. The traditional occupation for sociology graduates has been social work or some other form of public sector welfare work such as the probation service. However in practice sociology graduates go into a much wider range of jobs. In industry, for instance, human resource management (or personnel as it used to be called) is one application close to welfare but additionally aspects of marketing draw upon sociological skills. Virtually all sociology courses include methods of social research and these can have an enlightening effect upon market research. A PGCE or Postgraduate Certificate in Education is the key to a teaching career and most universities and colleges of higher education run courses. See the comments above about the need to ensure you are studying the right combination of subjects in your degree course for entry on to a PGCE course.

Studying sociology involves continuous interplay between matters of concern in society and concepts and theories of society. The requirement to reason and critically analyse the workings of society makes sociology an effective medium of intellectual development in the course of an undergraduate degree or other programme of study. Employers recognise this.

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Some universities may have arrangements in place for students to undertake one of the placements abroad. In this case the university must ensure: As with the MPhil it may involve empirical research or alternatively be library based. It will be supervised by one but normally more members of academic staff. During the first there will normally be a course of research training and this is often accomplished by the completion of a PGDip in Social Research. A PhD will be expected to take between two and four years to complete, although some take longer. Job Search - Useful Links