It is the responsibility of the university to ensure that the practice learning opportunities meet the learning needs of the student and enable them to demonstrate the national occupational standards. Students should read their handbooks carefully to find out information about practice learning arrangements on their programme and discuss with their tutor in the first instance if they have any concerns about the placement. Studying sociology provides you with a range of skills that employers look for, including communication, interpersonal, problem-solving and analytical skills. You learn to: 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. If you already have a degree you may be able to apply for a postgraduate course. You will see that postgraduate courses can be viewed separately. Some universities may have arrangements in place for students to undertake one of the placements abroad. In this case the university must ensure:

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. Many prospective employers recognise that a sociology degree combines the development of skills in reasoning and critical assessment with knowledge about society and its workings. Additionally the discipline of social work lends itself to a number of business uses including of course market research. The Civil Service and Local Government Service Some students become so involved with their sociology degree courses that they want to pursue the subject at a higher level. This can be approached in three ways: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. 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.

Many sociology graduates go into teaching. This embraces school teaching, further education and the option to remain in higher education. Prospective school teachers and teachers in further education go on after graduation to take a postgraduate certificate in education and there are specialist courses for each sector, i.e. primary, secondary, tertiary and also teaching for special needs.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.

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). through a masters degree by research (MPhil or the equivalent). Funding is by means of some form of scholarship, bursary or studentship for which there will be fierce competition unless the student is self-funding. A research project, conceived of by the postgraduate student with guidance, is supervised by one or more members of staff. The project must involve a finite piece of research carried out by the student and written up as a dissertation or thesis for the MPhil research degree.

It used to be the case that the Civil Service recruited its administrative officers from school-leavers but the general upgrading of qualification requirements has been such that increasingly it looks to graduates. The many branches of the civil service and of local government service are too numerous to list here but when the time comes you will find that career information appears alongside all the other prospective employers who are competing for the best graduates. 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 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. 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. 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