Welcome to the first ever social work blog! Throughout this blog I hope to give you insight into what studying for a social work degree is like, what life on and off campus is like and all the different societies there are for you to join, as well as things to do in the beautiful town of York.
Coming to University is a big and scary step, and especially doing a social work degree, because nobody quite understands what you are studying! (They all think you are training to be a child catcher!) If you are fortunate enough to get accepted onto the social work course at York then welcome to the best years of your life! (so far!)
The social work course changed last year and my year were the first to try and test it. I believe it works quite well. In your first year, you learn all the law and theory needed out there in the world of social work & there is a law exam, but you get 2 chances to take this exam and few people rarely fail. It can seem like a pain having to do theory for a year but it is worth it when you are on placement in second year and all the knowledge you 
have learnt you can apply to practice; it makes you feel super knowledgeable! There are quite a few essays in first year too, but you will be given a supervisor who will happily look over these before they are due to be submitted and I recommend using them as much as possible.
TOP TIP: Don’t rush and buy every textbook mentioned straight away – the uni library have plenty. The textbooks and books I would recommend buying for yourselves are:
- Social Work Law – Alison Brammer
- Social Work (an introduction to contemporary practice) – Prof Kate Wilson
- Ethics and Values – Sarah Banks
The social work department is a small, tight knit community based in Alcuin college. Your course will have the smallest number of people on it compared to other degrees but this is nice as you all bond and form really good friendships. There will be people of all ages and with different types of backgrounds and you can all learn from each other.
Your timetable in first year will be busy, but you will have good seminars & great workshops with people from different aspects of social work coming in to talk to you. These workshops are exciting as it can open your eyes to all the different areas of social work that you could potentially end up working in.
If I can give you one piece of advice for social work its make sure you have a balance. Work hard & play hard. Yes, you will have more things on your timetable than some of your friends, but really make the most of first year – you are entering the best years of your life where you are going to discover so much about the world and yourself.
They say to study a social work degree you have to be a certain type of person, who is secretly trying to figure something out about themselves…. I wonder what you will discover along this 3 year journey!
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