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Thinking to become a social worker is a big decision. I wrote this as a guide to help you in deciding if it really is the right career choice for you. In addition to that, you need to decide on how you will train to be a social worker, and there are several routes available these days. In this book I will discuss some of these routes and will highlight the key differences between them in order that you can choose the best route for you and your circumstances.

Social work is a career that attracts people of all ages, so if you’re in sixth form or college this guide is for you. Similarly maybe you’re studying as a mature student and are looking at the next stage, then this guide is for you. You may even be working in a career and you’re thinking you’d like a job that’s more worthwhile and social work could be it. You might have an undergraduate or even a postgraduate degree already, and I will cover that in this guide too. Social work also attracts people that have been out of employment and busy with caring duties, whether caring for children or adult family members, this guide will be helpful to you. As a teacher of trainee social workers, I had students aged from 18 to 61 and none looked out of place.

Embarking on a training program is a big deal and most routes will have significant tuition fees with big demands on your time, meaning less time for paid work. Training to be a social worker is not a decision to be taken lightly. It will be hard work, it will take your time and effort and the nature of social work can be upsetting and stressful. You will benefit from having the support of your family and friends, especially a partner if you have one. 

At the time of writing this guide, I’ve been a social worker for nineteen years and aside from having my children, it’s the best thing I did. Being a social worker changes you as a person. You will become a critical thinker, meaning that you will not just trust everything that is said or written. You will be wanting to know where information has come from, and why it is presented as it is. An example is that when you see shampoo adverts that say 99% of women saw an improvement in their hair, previously I would have believed that. My training taught me to think critically so upon reading the small print of the shampoo advert, I might learn that only 30 women were surveyed, so actually 99% of 30 is not a lot and wont persuade me to buy that shampoo. 

Social work can be really rewarding as you get to make a difference to people’s lives. It’s also a privileged position to be in and not everyone can or should be a social worker. There is so much variety within social work too, you could work with children, families, adults, you could do local authority or NHS statutory work or you could work in the voluntary or even private sector. There seems to be an increasing number of self-employed social workers now, giving them more flexibility and they get to be their own boss. There’s even an option to do locum social work through recruitment agencies which can pay well but has it’s disadvantages. I will discuss all these options further a bit later.

Feel free to read this guide in whatever order you choose. Readers may be at different stages of their journey so some may want to skip ahead to sections that are immediately relevant to them, and that will work fine. Others may wish to read the this guide in the order it’s presented in and that is also fine. Please do whatever works best. You may wish to use post it notes to take notes on key bits as you go through, so you can come back to them. Or you may prefer to have a notebook or even use a laptop to note key things down.

This guide is simply my thoughts, my advice and my experiences shared with you with the intention of helping you to learn more about what becoming a social worker will entail. Only you can make the decision as to whether you should pursue a career in social work and whether now is the right time to do so. 

Motivations for being a social worker

Personal experience

Social work is a profession that attracts many who have had their own struggles in life. This can be great, however it’s important that you are ready to study and that your past experiences are in your past and will not stop your from being able to succeed in your studies. Struggles and personal experiences will mean different things to different people. You do not need to share your personal lived experiences with anyone if you do not want to, so do not ever feel under pressure to do this. Your own experiences have led to you wanting to be a social worker to use your experiences for good.

I have interviewed many prospective social work students and I remember a person who started telling us what her motivation was to be a social worker. She got upset talking about her past experiences and it appeared that she could make a wonderful, compassionate social worker, but she did not seem ready at that time so we gave her constructive feedback and did not accept her to the course. 

Your experience does not make you an expert on how everyone else may feel if they go through the same thing that you did. Everyone has different levels of support, resilience, negative and positive factors in their lives. Your experience gives you an insight into how some people may feel if they experience something similar to you, but you need to be open to people having different experiences. 

It may be that you’ve experienced abuse, rape, trauma, mental ill health or other significant things, and I’m so glad you’ve survived and made it through. You will need to take care of yourself if you’re to successfully become a social worker. It’s likely that certain things will trigger you, maybe for the rest of your life and that’s okay, that’s manageable. It’s up to you what you choose to disclose to course tutors. Nowadays places are much more helpful towards people with past experiences and probably all universities will have some student wellbeing services. 

You will need to understand your triggers and plan for them. If you share information with course tutors it could be helpful and will be kept confidential. For example if you’ve experienced the suicide of a loved one, to hear about other similar stories may cause you to relive your experiences and to be upset. This could set you back a day or so with feeling upset. However if you speak to the course tutor they will be able to let you know in advance if they plan to deliver any teaching about this issue. You can therefore agree between you whether you may miss that particular lesson, whether you will just leave mid lesson if it feels too much, or something else you decide. This way you remain in control and you’re not suddenly blindsided by a distressing topic coming up whilst in class. 

If you’ve had difficulties with drugs and /or alcohol, I give credit to you for getting through this. It’s important that you are through this so do ensure that you take the time that you need and get any support that you need to stay on the right track. You will not be able to complete your social work training if you have drug and/or alcohol dependency, and if under the influence of these when on placement or in classes, you will likely have your student place terminated. I have seen this happen.

You may have a criminal record and be wondering if you stand a chance at being a social worker due to this. Having a criminal record does not necessarily stop you from studying to be a social worker. It will depend on what your offences were and I advise that you speak to universities honestly about this before you apply to study. Universities make their own judgements about what type of offences are acceptable and what aren’t. How long ago they were committed is also important. There are some offences like child abuse, assault of a child, rape, murder, etc which will rule you out and you will not get to be a social worker with these type of offences on your record. Other offences like possession of drugs, theft, assault on an adult and similar may be acceptable and some of this will depend upon your ability to reflect on your behaviour at the time of the offences and you will need to demonstrate learning to show that you are unlikely to commit further offences or pose a risk to others.

There’s a lot of risk to assess when considering criminal records. The university needs to assess if you’d be a safe social worker to be around vulnerable people. In addition to this, can you imagine if there was a tragedy like the death of a child and this was in the media, and it came out that the allocated social worker had convictions for armed robbery and drug dealing? Their employer would likely be targeted with a lot of negativity and their reputation would be hugely damaged as a responsible organisation. Employers and universities understandably are reluctant to take risks like this.

You may want to help others

I hope this one applies to you, otherwise social work is not the right career. You will need kindness and compassion to be a good social worker. You also need to be strong and focussed. As an example I worked with a young mother of three who had a husband who was dying. This was heart-breaking, but if I was to just sit and cry, that is no help. I needed to offer practical advice about how they will all manage whilst he was still around, but then after he had gone. I did of course express my sympathy and was kind to the family, but I was able to be productive also.

Social work is a care profession and don’t ever be afraid to show that. Some people are going through horrible things and you can acknowledge that, you can show some emotion.  It is natural that you will get upset when hearing about abuse so don’t ever think that is wrong. In fact if you start to feel not bothered when hearing about abuse or when people die then that’s the time to leave social work. 

You will have a career that is about helping others and I advise you to see this as a privilege.  You will have the role of visiting people when they are at their most vulnerable and you should respect every moment of that. You will be in people’s homes, their safe places, and you will be confided in and trusted often by people that are desperate for help. Remember also that sadly home isn’t safe for everyone, so a lot depends on you and your judgements, based upon your observations.

Unfortunately in my career I have known of a few social workers that have misused their position and have abused vulnerable people they were tasked with helping. In the cases I’m aware of, the social workers were arrested and charged accordingly. It also led to reports in the media. Sometimes careers that give access to vulnerable people can attract predators. But rest assured that they will be found out and dealt with. We all have a duty to remain vigilant and if we see anything suspicious with a colleague, we must report it.

In my early career as a child protection social worker, I had carried out a joint visit with a colleague to see a young girl. The case belonged to my colleague but our protocol was to do joint visits in certain cases for our safety. He asked me to accompany him for this reason. We had been notified by the Probation Service that the girls mum had started a relationship with a convicted rapist, and there was concern over the girl’s safety.  Upon visiting the family home, the girl was not present. The social worker I was with seemed to be getting along very well with the rapist and going along with him when he was denying being a rapist. In case you don’t already know, in the UK we have very low conviction rates for rape, so if a person has been convicted and served a prison sentence for rape, I believe it is highly likely they have committed rape. 

When we were back at the office, the social worker I had accompanied wrote up his assessment and he wrote it in a vague way which suggested we had seen the girl. He recommended to our manager that the case be closed with no further action needed. I felt this was not right as we did not see the child and her mum thinks her rapist boyfriend is not a rapist. Therefore if anything was to happen to the girl I felt it was unlikely that her mum would believe her. I was worried about this girl. I spoke to our team manager and explained what had happened and she took appropriate action. I didn’t know at the time but there had been other concerns raised about this social worker and he ended up getting arrested for various sexual offences a few months after I raised concerns about his inaccurate assessment which did not safeguard a child.  The manager ensured that the girl was visited by a social worker and plans put in place to protect her, based upon my concerns. 

The pay and conditions

I remember when I first got paid as a social worker, I felt rich! It was the most money I had ever earned. As a social worker, it’s unlikely you will actually earn enough to be a millionaire.  If you work for a local authority or NHS you will have good conditions, like a good pension scheme, excellent sick pay and decent annual leave allowances. Many now also have various staff discount schemes with special offers on leisure centre and gym use and even discount off groceries and other things.  A job in a local authority or the NHS will give you job security and peace of mind if ever you get ill, and even if you die whilst being employed, as they tend to have a death grant which would get paid to your loved ones in the event you died. There are usually lots of opportunities for further training and career progression when you’re working in the public sector. 

If you work for a charity or voluntary sector organisation, it’s likely your pay may be lower than public sector roles. You also may not get the generous sick pay and pension scheme that public sector staff get – you might do though, it’s something to check as organisations will work differently, so I can’t really advise how they operate their pay and conditions. Charities and voluntary sector organisations are often smaller than the public sector and so there may not be many career progression opportunities within your organisation. 

You could work for a social work agency. Agencies usually want people with a few years post qualified experience because if you get a role through an agency you are usually expected to hit the ground running.  There are also due to be some new rules coming in at the time of writing which will affect agency workers working within children’s services in local authorities. The new rules are about needing agency social workers to have at least three years post qualified experience within a local authority before they can be signed up with an agency.
 

Qualification routes

The social work degree

In 2003 a new undergraduate degree or a postgraduate degree option came about for social work training. Prior to this, people needed to do a two year diploma and before that it was even less training with just the completion of a certificate. Social work has become much more complex over the years and I have experienced some of those with legacy qualifications struggling with the demands, especially when they’ve needed to write reports for court or other important purposes.

The changes in social work training came about after the tragic death of Victoria Climbie in the year 2000. Victoria was an eight year old girl who died after suffering abuse by extended family members. There were several statutory agencies involved with her but sadly none of them stopped the abuse. There were already planned changes with how Police were trained and as there was no plan for improvements in social work training, this was recommended to the government in in investigation report by Lord Laming. Therefore social work training was to be more thorough and address some of the identified failures in how agencies worked together in the sad case of Victoria Climbie. It will be useful to you to read the Laming report and read various articles that you can find online if you search about Victoria Climbie. There was a lot of blame towards social workers, rightly or wrongly, but I think this will help you to realise how difficult it can be when working with abusers. People can and will lie, victims do not always seek help, social workers (and others involved) need to balance efforts to work in partnership with people, with suspicion in case they are being lied to. The three social work degree was born and is still going strong. 

The degree course has about 200 practice placement days, although this may vary in how these are used. Most universities seem to have two placements in year 2 and year 3. Year 2 is approximately 70 days and year 3 is 100 days. Some universities will have a 30 day observational placement in year 1, while others will use these 30 days as what they may call ‘skills days’. 

Eligibility may vary slightly between universities, so do check out a few. You will likely need at least 112- 128 tariff points from at least two A-levels or equivalent. In addition you will likely need GCSE in at least level 4 (grade C) in English. You may be required to have some paid or voluntary work experience with children or vulnerable adults.  Before the degree came about, there was a requirement that you needed to be a certain age to get accepted onto social work training, with some places setting this at 22 and others as high as 25 years old. The idea was that you must have gained significant experience before embarking on social work training. This requirement ceased when the degree came in, and so people could apply to study social work straight from college/sixth form at age 18.

Joint degree

There are some joint degree courses such as adult nursing and social work and learning disability nursing and social work. Some of these are undergraduate level and some are masters level. Obviously as you will qualify in two professionalisms the courses take longer to complete than if you were studying for one profession. These courses can be quite intense as there is a lot of studying and learning packed into them. Both professions require you to do practice placements and you need to factor this into your decision making. If you’re studying nursing, along with social work, you may find a requirement to do night shifts on student placements. Not everyone can manage this due to childcare or other reasons. In my career I’ve met a few people that have studied one of these joint degrees, however they have always gone into one of the professions. I’ve never met a duel qualified social worker and nurse that switches between their roles. So perhaps they could have saved themselves some time and effort by deciding which profession to go into, and then doing either social work or nursing. Have a think about what will work for you.

Masters degree

If you already have an undergraduate degree, you should probably be looking to study on a social work masters course, and these are usually two years. Different universities may vary in eligibility requirements, so check out a few. You can quickly check the eligibility requirements on the websites of universities that you’re interested in. Most will want you to have English and Maths GCSE’s at grade 4 (C in old style). The Masters degree will typically have two placements, one in year 1 for 70 days and the other in your second and final year for 100 days. 

Undergraduate Degree Apprenticeship

This is an amazing opportunity if you get to do this route and I will tell you why. You have no tuition fees and will get paid a salary whilst you’re studying!  As you can imagine though, as it’s so amazing, it is very competitive and many people will likely be applying for just a small number of places. Local authorities have to pay something called an apprentice levy, and it’s this that funds their apprenticeship places. You’ll find that many local authorities will be offering a handful of apprenticeship places for existing staff working in social care departments to apply to train as social workers. This is also an option for other social care organisations to work with a university to offer social work degree apprenticeships to it’s staff, outside of being in a local authority setting. Employers and universities would just need to agree on the terms. In local authorities these opportunities will likely be offered to internal staff, so there will likely be an internal vacancy advertised across children’s social care and a separate one advertised internally across adult social care. 

It is a big investment for an employer to make by funding your tuition fees and paying your salary for three years, so they probably want to do this for existing employees that they know well and they feel confident they are making a good investment in. If you currently work in a local authority and are interested in the social work apprenticeship route, I’d suggest that you make contact with your principal social worker for a discussion and to learn when the next rounds of recruitment will be happening. This will ensure you don’t miss a job advert, and you will look keen to your principal social worker. It is highly likely to be your principal social worker leading or at least involved in the social work degree apprenticeship recruitment process. 

You will typically have a lot of placement days on the apprenticeship route as it’s work based. You may have something like 135 practice days in your usual work place in year 1, 95 days in your usual work place in year 2, and also 40 days in a different setting. In your final year you could have something like 85 days in your usual work place and also 50 days in another placement. In addition to these practice days, you’ve got a lot of academic work to do too.

In 2025 there was a change to the requirements that the government imposed on the apprenticeships. They no longer required that applicants had achieved maths and English GCSE’s at grade 4 (old style C) or above. You may be celebrating at that if you’re one of many that has always struggled with these subjects. However, employing organisations have discretion to impose this as a requirement if they wish, so do ensure you check what is required before you apply. Each employer may vary as to what qualifications and level of experience they require, but even if you meet the criteria, remember it is competitive so you may still be unsuccessful for one of the limited places on offer.

I’m quite concerned about the potential to set people up to fail by asking for no or few low level qualifications and /or experience for a social work apprenticeship. The opportunity attracts a range of applicants, some with recent levels of successful academic study and some with basic levels of compulsory education which they did decades ago. When the recruiters are looking at the applications they have to consider who seems most likely to complete the degree program. If someone just has a few GCSE’s from twenty years ago, and they’ve not done any further qualifications or academic work since then, then in my view it would be unfair on all involved to offer them a place on a degree course. The apprenticeship route still includes all the academic work that comes with a university degree. An undergraduate degree is level 6 and GCSE’s are level 3 so you can see it’s quite a big jump.

If you’re fortunate to be working for an employer that offers social work degree apprenticeships, then it would be sensible to speak to your principal social worker and your line manager about whether they think your qualifications are sufficient and recent enough, or whether they could help you to complete something else first. There are plenty of level 4 and level 5 courses available that you could potentially do and these will get you ready for the next level of academic study. They will also evidence that you are taking the degree apprenticeship really seriously as an investment not just for you, but for your employer, and you will stand a better chance at getting shortlisted to the next stage in the recruitment process, as many get shortlisted out early on due to the high volume of applications.

You can find out more about degree apprenticeships in social work by looking up the governments department for education website and searching for the degree apprenticeship in social work. 

Masters Level Degree Apprenticeship

There is also a masters level social work degree apprenticeship which is for people that already have an undergraduate degree and would do a higher level and likely shorter apprenticeship. In 2025 the government has announced plans to stop funding this level of apprenticeship for people over the age of 21, which is probably the vast majority of applicants. 

Various Fast track Routes

Over the years the government has created various alternative routes into social work. 

Step up to Social Work

This is for graduates that already have a degree level qualification. It’s a fast track, intensive program lasting just 14 months and you get a post graduate diploma at the end of it, as opposed to a degree. This is aimed at people that would move into careers working with children and families. You need to have maths and English GCSE’s at grade 4 (old school C) to be eligible. You’ll also need at least sixth months experience of either paid or voluntary work with children, families or vulnerable adults to apply to apply. This is another great opportunity as there are no tuition fees to pay and you get a bursary which is currently £21,995 a year.

You will likely have two different practice placements totalling about 170 days. Currently applications for this program are every two years and it’s another route into social work that is very competitive with many applicants for just a few available places. I’ve seen adverts for this program advertised externally, which differs to the social work apprenticeships which tend to be ringfenced just for existing staff. You can keep a look out for vacancies being advertised on council job websites and you could also contact your local authority children’s social care principal social worker to ask if they will be recruiting for step up students in the future. As this is a program aimed at producing social workers for the children’s social care workforce, it will be the local authority children’s social care department that will be leading on this, not the adults department.  You can find detailed information on the governments department for education website if you search for step up to social work.

Approach Social Work 

This is another program that allows you the opportunity to qualify as a  social worker in just 14 months, giving you a post graduate diploma in social work. After this, if you wish you can top up this diploma to a Master’s degree. You must already have a degree to be eligible to apply for this route and you need GCSE in English at grade 4 (old school C), interestingly there’s no maths requirement. This program is available at a few local authorities only.

In the first year, students get a bursary of £18,000 or £20,000 if in London, remember to check for updated figures as I’m only able to say what funding levels are at the time of writing this (2025). For the second year you get a salary by a local authority equivalent to that of a newly qualified social worker. There are no tuition fees to pay. This course is managed by an organisation called Frontline which has been working with the government about various social work and education pieces of work for a number of years. You can register on Front Line’s website to be notified of when the Approach Social Work scheme is recruiting. 

Think Ahead

This is a fast track program with a focus on mental health social work. 2025 is the last year that people could start this program as the government has discontinued it. This program had been running since 2016. This isn’t an option for you as it’s stopped, but you may hear of social workers that have trained via this route.

My thoughts on the various routes into social work

You will need to consider your own circumstances in terms of what qualifications and experience you already have. Perhaps reading this guide has highlighted the need to gain further qualifications, or perhaps you’ve decided that you’re good to go and you know which route is best for you. I think it’s important to consider why you want to study to be a social worker, and by that I mean, think about whether you just want that qualification at the end, or do you actually want to learn and be a great practitioner? 

The creation of various fast track routes into social work has caused some controversy in the profession. Some reasons are that the social work degree was created to make initial social work training include more practice days and more learning, due to the findings and recommendations of the Laming report into the death of Victoria Climbie. It feels contradictory to create shorter programs after already determining that social work training should be more and better than the previous 2 year diploma. The Approach Social Work program gets you qualified as a social worker in 14 months which is a lot less than the degree. So yes this gets you qualified but will you be ready to have the responsibility that comes with being a social worker? 

The fast track programs are very competitive and so I think it’s reasonable to assume that only the best candidates will be selected. So perhaps those on these routes will already have significant academic and work experience with vulnerable people, making them already have a head start over some of the people on the degree course. Maybe, or maybe not.  I have had limited experience with the fast track programs and it has not been positive. The programs are intense, with a lot crammed in and this can be highly pressuring for people. I’ve supported two students on different fast track courses and both left their programs early without completing. There have been success stories too, but it is not my intention to use this guide as an appraisal of fast track social work courses, and you will find plenty of material online should you wish to learn more about these programs.

Unlike many other subjects, there appear to be no part time options for studying social work, so it’s full time or nothing. You need to think carefully about the commitment you’re making by starting a full time course of study. Not only will it take up your time, but it can be costly. If you get to study on an apprenticeship route this is probably the best route as you’ll get your normal salary and you will not have tuition fees to pay. You get the university academic work to do to give you even more learning, and you get loads of practical experience.

The degree route, whether a masters or an under graduate degree offers really good learning, but there are tuition fees to pay. There are student loans available to cover tuition fees and your living costs, and they have their own criteria which you can look up yourself if you’d like to.  There may be some bursary funding and various grants for people with dependent children, disabled students and often care leavers, and you can get information about this from universities directly. I’d strongly advise you to look into these things when you’re researching universities, as I can only mention things that are available at the time of writing this guide. When studying full time, this leaves little time for paid work, so your finances will likely be stretched. You also need to focus on your studies, as it’s no good being on a degree course but spending too much time in a job earning money and then you perform poorly in all your academic work as you’ve not put the time into it.

If you have a partner, it will be difficult to pursue social work training without their support, so I’d advise that you try to get them on board. One benefit of being a full time student is that you’re exempt from paying council tax and you can usually get lots of discounts in shops, leisure centres, cinema’s, etc. Although starting social work training is a big commitment, it will soon fly by.

I did the 3 year social work degree and at that time, due to a shortage of social workers, we were all exempt from tuition fees. However I took out student loans for my living expenses and it took me over a decade to pay them off. I don’t regret it though as it was the only way I could have become a social worker at that time.

References

Front Line (2023) FrontLine [online] Available at: https://thefrontline.org.uk/become-a-social-worker/approach-social-work/ [Accessed 25/08/2025].

Lord Laming (2003) The Victoria Climbie Enquiry [online] Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7c5edeed915d696ccfc51b/5730.pdf [Accessed 25/08/2025].

Uk Government Department for Education (2025) Degree Apprenticeships Level 6 in social work [online] Available at: ttps://support-for-social-workers.education.gov.uk/become-a-social-worker/degree-apprenticeship-level-6?preferenceSet=True [Accessed 25/08/2025].

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