Located in the heart of England, the University of Derby offers industry-relevant, expert teaching, study and research. They offer industry-relevant, expert teaching, study and research. The University of Derby is a place where you can live your dream, where you can realise your vision for your future. It's a place where you can truly be yourself and where you can take your passion and talent and use them to create a better world. They have a long and proud heritage of using their knowledge and innovation to support the prosperity of the Derbyshire region, the nation and around the world. Their strong industry links, expert academics and real-world classroom facilities equip and prepare students to fulfil their potential, whatever their background.
BA (Hons) Applied Social Work at University of Derby
This course at the University of Derby gives you the opportunity to qualify as a social worker for one of the most challenging and rewarding careers of all. You’ll meet high professional standards and gain invaluable experience on substantial work placements. This applied course paves the way for you to register and practise as a qualified social worker, reaching out to help people from many different backgrounds to assess and tackle their problems.
This course prepares you to work as a confident, caring and highly skilled social worker in a variety of settings. This wide-ranging course equips you with the skills, knowledge and theories you need to make a difference from day one in your role. Becoming a social worker will challenge you in ways few other careers ever will. You need resilience and flexibility to manage complex cases, but the rewards are immense as you make a genuine difference to people’s lives.
Your role could involve supporting young people who need protection, homeless children and adults, people with mental health problems, teenagers in care, or people with drug or alcohol dependency. On this course you will learn how to form effective partnerships with individuals, families and other professionals and will become skilled in assessing, interpreting and addressing people’s individual problems. The emphasis at the University of Derby is on helping you to develop empowering, supportive and focused solutions to those problems.
Because this course is approved and accredited by Social Work England, you will be working to the standards set out by the regulatory body for Social Workers, giving you the ideal preparation for real workplace environments. Plus, when you graduate, you'll be able to register with Social Work England to practise as a qualified social worker, as long as you meet their requirements. This course features substantial periods of work placement so that you can apply the theory you are learning to practice. You will have 80 days of placement during stage two and 90 days of placement in stage three, all providing you with effective, practical and meaningful experience which will stand you in good stead for your future career.
Jess Grace Jackson
Jess Grace Jackson is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work and currently the programme leader for the BA (Hons) Applied Social Work at the University of Derby. She is responsible for the overview of the regulated undergraduate Social Work programme. Prior to joining the University, Jess has been a practising social worker in a range of settings and still works as an independent social worker today. She is module leader for Domestic Abuse on the BA, Contemporary Issues in Social Work on the MA and teach across other modules on the programmes. Jess's professional interests include the impact of developmental trauma throughout the life cycle, systemic and multi-professional working, trauma informed care and supervision, domestic abuse and gender based violence. She is also an expert witness for domestic abuse work in the family courts providing comprehensive risk assessments of perpetrators to assist in decision making for children. Jess's research interests include gender bias in family courts and the re-victimisation of domestic abuse survivors through child protection and the family courts. she is currently studying an MSc in Attachment Theory, Research and Practice, and is a member of Social Work England. Jess has worked in social care since 2006, starting as a volunteer for women's aid and becoming a qualified social worker in 2011. She has managed multi-professional teams in mother and child residential, child development services and at Pause, working with women subject to recurrent care proceedings and child removals. Her focus over the last four years has been implementing evidence-based services.
