Social Work PgDip Apprenticeship
Subject and course type
- Social work and social care
- Postgraduate
- Degree apprenticeship
Kingston University’s Social Work PgDip Apprenticeship is co-produced with London employers. It offers a unique and tailored learning experience. Here you’ll gain the knowledge, skills, and qualities needed to excel as a social work practitioner.
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Advance your career while making a difference in social work
Make a real impact while learning
The course ensures you will be supported throughout your studies by both the University and your employer. Upon successful completion, you’ll be eligible for registration with Social Work England, ready to make a meaningful impact in the field.
Throughout the course, you’ll develop the skills to navigate the complexity of working with people in a diverse range of settings. You will learn how to apply current social work theory, research, ethics, psychology, sociology, social policy and law to practice.
Working alongside experienced professionals, you will support individuals within their communities. You'll gain hands-on experience through placements, where you will be supported to learn how to navigate complex social issues and improve outcomes for people, while advocating from a social justice value base.
Why choose this course
We invite you to be part of a bright future for social work by joining the social work apprenticeship here at Kingston University. This programme enables you to combine university learning with practical experience at your workplace. A strength of this apprenticeship is the opportunity to integrate social work knowledge to your practice from the outset. You’ll develop key skills, knowledge and professional behaviours for a successful career in social work.
Key areas you will study include:
- Substance misuse
- Youth justice
- Mental health
- Human rights
- Approaches to social justice
- Safeguarding children and adults and risk assessment
- Child and adult development
- Domestic abuse
- Interprofessional working
- Creating solutions to practice dilemmas.
The approach to learning at Kingston University is underpinned by a commitment to an inclusive curriculum. We aim to ensure all apprentices feel welcome and can engage in their learning. We welcome the diversity of background and experience that you bring, and look forward to learning with you.
Accreditation
The programme is approved by Social Work England. On completion, the apprentice will have fully satisfied the educational base for Social Work training and following satisfactory fulfilment of the End Point Assessment, successful apprentices would be eligible to apply to Social Work England for professional registration as a social worker.
Course content
This degree apprenticeship is designed to support learning both at the workplace, where you will spend 80% of your time learning on the job in work-based settings with your employer, and at the University, where you will spend a minimum of 20% of your time engaged in off-the-job learning attending Kingston University taught sessions. Some of the modules are taught in 5-day and 10-day blocks.
Year 1
In your first year, the modules will help prepare you for social work, enabling you to develop a repertoire of professional responses that can be used in practice. You will be introduced to theories of human development, law, policy and ethics. Alongside these modules, you will take a work-based learning module that enables you to demonstrate practice skills mapped against the readiness for direct practice level, followed by the first placement level of the social work professional capability framework (PCF) and apprenticeship standards.
Core modules
30 credits
This bespoke module is designed specifically for Level 7 social work apprentices and is intended to prepare them to transition into the social work apprenticeship.
It starts by supporting apprentices’ critical understanding of what it means to them personally and professionally to enter the social work profession. Previous learning experiences will be re-contextualised to demonstrate how knowledge, skills, and behaviours apply within the context of social work regulatory and legal requirements.
Apprentices will be supported in developing a critical application of and reflection on how social work knowledge and approaches inform the identification of strengths, needs, and risks when working with people in practice.
30 credits
This is the first of three modules on this course that enable apprentices to demonstrate practice skills against the nine domains of the Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF) and the Integrated Degree Apprenticeship Standards for Social Workers.
You will build upon prior learning using the module learning outcomes to demonstrate your preparation for your new role as an apprentice social worker. Previous learning experiences will be re-contextualised to demonstrate how your knowledge, skills and behaviours apply within social workers’ responsibility and accountability, as required by the professional regulator and the relevant standards.
In this on the job learning module, apprentices will be supported by a mentor, tutor, and your line manager and/or mentor to work through agreed learning objectives mapped against the appropriate levels of the PCF and apprenticeship standards. People with Lived Experience will be involved throughout.
30 credits
This module builds on apprentices learning about law, policy and ethics from Level 4 and translates earlier learning into a rights and justice based social work context. This will develop apprentices' legal literacy and the use of professional authority and make judgements within legal and ethical frameworks. All content is considered from national and international perspectives to ensure that apprentices are able to connect global forces that inform structural, legal and professional parameters. Previous learning experiences will be re-contextualised to demonstrate how their knowledge, skills and behaviours apply within social workers' responsibility and accountability, as required by the professional regulator and the relevant standards.
You will learn about inter-professional work and develop a degree of practice agility to work effectively within different settings. You will learn to evaluate how social work models, theories and research inform planning, assessment, and interventions; and further develop knowledge on social work in action, developing your earlier legal learning and applying into a rights and justice based social work context.
You will also take a work-based module where you will undertake a contrasting work based learning experience mapped against the second placement level requirements of the social work professional capability framework (PCF).
30 credits
This module builds on the Transitions module in Year 1 and further develops apprentices' professional identity. Apprentices will develop behavioural skills, values and knowledge to work collaboratively within organisational systems as well as inter-professionally, while remaining accountable to their own organisations with a clear sense of social work identity. Apprentices will gain an understanding of the thread between organisational systems, research informed practice and, outcomes for people living with the experience of social work. Previous learning experiences will be re-contextualised to demonstrate how their knowledge, skills and behaviours apply within social workers' responsibility and accountability, as required by the professional regulator and the relevant standards.
Year 2
In the final year of the course, you will complete a module to consolidate knowledge and skills for practice, examined by an in-depth analysis of a case study from practice, and an integrated approach to practice (a work-based module).
Upon successful completion of the academic modules and gaining a total of 120 credits, apprentices can complete the End Point Assessment (EPA). As a gateway requirement, in addition to the academic credits, you must provide evidence of a specified level of English and satisfactory completion of the off-the-job hours.
Core modules
30 credits
Apprentices will use the module learning outcomes to demonstrate their preparation for their role as a social work apprentice. Previous learning experiences will be re-contextualised to demonstrate how their knowledge, skills and behaviours apply within social workers' responsibility and accountability, as required by the professional regulator and the relevant standards.
This module builds on the knowledge apprentices gained in SWAD 4.2 (Development across the lifespan) Drawing on apprentices current practice, this module enables apprentices to further develop their ability to evaluate how social work models, research, and theories inform planning, assessment, and interventions. Drawing on the narrative accounts of those with lived experiences of social work, apprentices will be supported to increase their reflective awareness of how assumptions and biases promote or hinder outcomes. Apprentices will begin to build confidence and ability to understand complexity and risk while developing professional decision-making skills.
30 credits
This is the second of three modules on this course that enable apprentices to demonstrate practice skills against the nine domains of the Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF) and the Integrated Degree Apprenticeship Standards for Social Workers. Apprentices will build upon prior learning using the module learning outcomes to demonstrate their preparation for their role as an apprentice social worker. Previous learning experiences will be re-contextualised to demonstrate how their knowledge, skills and behaviours apply within social workers' responsibility and accountability, as required by the professional regulator and the relevant standards.
Students will develop their legal literacy and the use of professional authority and make judgements within legal and ethical frameworks. All content is considered from national and international perspectives to ensure that apprentices are able to connect global forces that inform structural, legal and professional parameters. Previous learning experiences will be re-contextualised to demonstrate how their knowledge, skills and behaviours apply within social workers' responsibility and accountability, as required by the professional regulator and the relevant standards.
30 credits
This final year consolidation project enables apprentices to synthesise and apply the knowledge and skills that they have acquired throughout the apprenticeship programme by undertaking an in-depth analysis of a case study derived from work-based learning. This should be a case study that raises issues that related to a developing specialist area or interest to the apprentice. Previous learning experiences will be re-contextualised to demonstrate how their knowledge, skills and behaviours apply within social workers' responsibility and accountability, as required by the professional regulator and the relevant standards. This module is also designed to help apprentices prepare for the end point assessment by supporting the development of skills that will enable them to approach the end point assessment equipped with the necessary ability to apply the knowledge and skills they have acquired throughout the apprenticeship.
30 credits
This is the third of three modules on this course that enable apprentices to demonstrate practice skills against the nine domains of the Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF) and the Integrated Degree Apprenticeship Standards for Social Workers. Apprentices will build upon prior learning using the module learning outcomes to demonstrate their preparation for their role as a pre-qualifying apprentice social worker. Previous learning experiences will be re-contextualised to demonstrate how their knowledge, skills and behaviours apply within social workers' responsibility and accountability, as required by the professional regulator and the relevant standards.
Career opportunities
This course leads to the award of a PGDip Social Work (Apprenticeship) and a professional qualification through End-Point Assessment (EPA), which ensures you have developed the required skills, knowledge, and behaviours to complete your course and met the compliance requirements of your course. Furthermore, you would be eligible to apply to Social Work England for professional registration as a social worker.
Following this there are opportunities in the statutory, voluntary and private sectors. Social workers increasingly work in integrated, interprofessional teams in social care, health, education and criminal justice.
This collaborative approach to learning in class and at the workplace will prepare you for a range of career opportunities, where you can make a real impact by supporting individuals and communities in need.
Teaching and assessment
Learning on this course will take place both in your place of work and at the University. You will spend 80% of your time learning on the job (work-based learning with your employer) and at least 20% of your time learning off the job (attending Kingston University taught sessions or engaged in guided independent study).
Throughout your course, you will be supported by a team comprising a university-based tutor assessor, a work-based line manager and a work-based mentor. The tutor assessor will be your academic and personal tutor who will assess your on-the-job learning, working closely with your line manager, your mentor and yourself to complete a practice portfolio. Regular tri-partite meetings will be held to review your learning progress.
During off-the-job learning, you will attend university-delivered teaching sessions and participate in interactive seminars with other apprentices on this course. The University has a range of support systems, including online learning resources, to support you to prepare and submit work for assessment at the end of each module.
Outside the scheduled learning and teaching hours, you will learn independently through self-study which will involve reading articles, podcasts, books, working on projects, undertaking research, preparing for and completing your work for assessments. Some independent study work may need to be completed on campus, as you may need to access campus-based facilities.
Our academic support team here at Kingston University provides help in a range of areas.
When you arrive, we'll introduce you to your personal tutor. This is the member of academic staff who will provide academic guidance, be a support throughout your time at Kingston and show you how to make the best use of all the help and resources that we offer at Kingston University.
Year 1
- On the job learning (approx): 1240 hours
- Guided independent study (self-managed time): 200 hours
- Scheduled learning and teaching: 150 hours
Year 2
- On the job learning (approx): 1240 hours
- Guided independent study (self-managed time): 200 hours
- Scheduled learning and teaching: 150 hours
Assessment typically comprises exams (e.g. test or exam), practical (e.g. presentations, performance) and coursework (e.g. essays, reports, self-assessment, portfolios, dissertation). The approximate percentage for how you will be assessed on this programme is as follows, though depends to some extent on the optional modules you choose.
- Year 1: coursework: 90%; exams: 10%
- Year 2: coursework: 90%; practical: 10%
Based on the Education and Skills Funding Agency funding rules, your on-the-job training will also be assessed to ensure that it meets the requirements of the apprenticeship standard and End-Point Assessment.
We aim to provide feedback on assessments within 20 working days.
Your individualised timetable is normally available to learners within 48 hours of enrolment. Whilst we make every effort to ensure timetables are as student-friendly as possible, scheduled teaching can take place on any day of the week between 9am and 6pm.
End-Point Assessment
Each apprentice on an approved Apprenticeship Standard is required to take an End-Point Assessment (EPA) to complete the programme. Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).
The EPA is integrated as part of our apprenticeship course. To complete this, an apprentice must ensure they have successfully completed their learning, achieved the gateway requirements and finished uploading their evidence prior to taking the EPA.
Fees and funding
This degree apprenticeship programme is funded through the Government's Apprenticeship Levy within the approved funding band.
This degree apprenticeship programme is funded through the Government's Apprenticeship Levy within the approved funding band.
This degree apprenticeship programme is funded through the Government's Apprenticeship Levy within the approved funding band.
Additional course costs
Some courses may require additional costs beyond tuition fees. When planning your studies, you’ll want to consider tuition fees, living costs, and any extra costs that might relate to your area of study.
Your tuition fees include costs for teaching, assessment and university facilities. So your access to libraries, shared IT resources and various student support services are all covered. Accommodation and general living expenses are not covered by these fees.
Where applicable, additional expenses for your course may include:
Our libraries have an extensive collection of books and journals, as well as open-access computers and laptops available to rent. However, you may want to buy your own computer or personal copies of key textbooks. Textbooks may range from £50 to £250 per year. And a personal computer can range from £100 to £3,000 depending on your course requirements.
While most coursework is submitted online, some modules may require printed copies. You may want to allocate up to £100 per year for hard-copies of your coursework. It’s worth noting that 3D printing is never compulsory. So if you choose to use our 3D printers, you’ll need to pay for the material. This ranges from 3p per gram to 40p per gram.
Kingston University will pay for all compulsory field trips. Fees for optional trips can range from £30 to £350 per trip.
Your tuition fees don’t cover travel costs. To save on travel costs, you can use our intersite bus service. This route links the campuses and halls of residence with local train stations: Surbiton, Kingston upon Thames, and Norbiton.
Courses involving placements or direct work with vulnerable groups may require a DBS check or other security checks.
Next steps
Employees
If you are currently employed full time and would like to find out more about apprenticeships, please ask your employer to contact the Kingston University apprenticeship team.
Employers
If you are an employer interested in how apprenticeships can support your organisation and employees, please contact the apprenticeship team for further details.
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Course changes and regulations
The information on this page reflects the currently intended course structure and module details. To improve your student experience and the quality of your degree, we may review and change the material information of this course. Find out more about course changes
Programme Specifications for the course are published ahead of each academic year.
Regulations governing this course can be found on our website.
