Overview
Coventry University has been providing social work CPD (Continuous Professional Development) courses and modules to local employers for many years and has prominent links with nearby local authorities and voluntary sector organisations.
This Postgraduate Certificate course in Advanced Adult Social Work is designed for social workers who have completed their social work pre-registration training,are in employment and wish to enhance their career prospects via gaining a postgraduate level qualification. Opportunities may also be available within the faculty to progress your studies beyond the Postgraduate Certificate to a full master’s degree (subject to successfully completing the PG Cert and application).
This course is open to EU nationals living in the UK with settled or pre-settled status who would not require a visa to study.
Why Coventry University?
An award-winning university, we are committed to providing our students with the best possible experience. We continue to invest in both our facilities and our innovative approach to education. Our students benefit from industry-relevant teaching, and resources and support designed to help them succeed. These range from our modern library and computing facilities to dedicated careers advice and our impressive Students’ Union activities.
COVID-19
The University may deliver certain contact hours and assessments via emerging online technologies and methods across all courses. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, we are prepared for courses due to start in or after the 2020/2021 academic year to be delivered in a variety of forms. The form of delivery will be determined in accordance with Government and Public Health guidance. Whether on campus or online, our key priority is staff and student safety.
Due to the ongoing restrictions relating to Covid-19, some facilities (including some teaching and learning spaces) and some non-academic offerings (particularly in relation to international experiences), may vary from those advertised and may have reduced availability or restrictions on their use.
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All the support you need, in a top student cityCourse information
This course aims to enable you as a social worker to develop your career from early social work practice through to teaching, mentoring and assessing others.
It has been designed to enable you to develop your practice, extend your range of skills, enhance your critical reflective skills and thus improve service delivery.
It is offered via a blended learning approach and is intended to be a key vehicle for social workers to gain an academic award on successful completion while at the same time meeting your CPD, which is required by the current regulator.
The curriculum for the course aims to allow you to meet the Practice Educator Professional Standards (PEPS) stage 1 requirements where you should begin to form some knowledge of the role of teaching and mentoring others as you develop your social work career in more senior positions.
An additional module on this qualification route - “Advanced Critical Practice: Adult Social Work “ will focus on enhancing your knowledge in adult social work practice. All modules are mandatory.
Course Specification
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Modules
We regularly review our course content, to make it relevant and current for the benefit of our students. For these reasons, course modules may be updated.
In more detail...
The course is designed for social workers who have completed social work pre-registration training and are in employment and want to enhance their career prospects with a postgraduate level qualification upon successful completion. Opportunities may also be available within the faculty to progress your studies beyond the Postgraduate Certificate to a full master’s degree (subject to successfully completing the PG Cert, an application to a Master’s course and additional fees).
The provision of CPD has become part of a workstream within the recently formed West Midlands Teaching Partnership. The purpose of the collaboration is to raise standards to ensure that pre- and post-qualifying social work education, placement provision and continuous professional development of qualified practitioners is of a high quality and serves the interests of both employers and academic institutions with the aim of training and developing social workers to deliver the best possible services to service users.
The aims of this course include:
- To develop your capacity to evaluate, review and improve approaches and systems, and apply learning effectively at an appropriate level using relevant methodologies, ensuring continuous improvement.
- To provide the chance to facilitate the development of a self-aware, proactive, reflective practitioner who is ready to contribute to the innovation, development and evidence-base of the social work profession.
- To increase your confidence, resilience and adaptability to the changing demands of social work.
- To provide opportunities to develop your critical understanding of global and national issues and insights of social work practice.
- To create a stimulating learning environment that encourages the development of digitally fluent students who embrace life-long learning for their ongoing personal and professional advancement.
To give you the opportunity to become an expert practitioner, an agent of change and be ‘leadership ready’.
The course is delivered on a part-time basis and can be taken over a one year or two-year period to meet the needs of social workers who wish to study alongside their professional practice as part of their continuing professional development. While we would like to give you all the information about our part-time offering here, it is tailored for each course each year depending on the number of part-time applicants. Therefore, the part-time teaching arrangements vary. Please contact the course director for more information about studying this course part-time.
It will be delivered using a blended learning approach of both classroom teaching, online discussions and tasks, and project work.
The course team has expertise in working with learners who are mature, from diverse backgrounds or have a range of individual learning needs. Overall the teaching and learning strategy seeks to assist you in your developmental journey and enable you to develop professional skills and personal capabilities. The strategy is also designed to enable you to be critically reflective in your own work setting and to be able to recognise not only your own development needs but the development needs of your team or service and of pre-qualifying social work students. This involves a transition from initially supported and guided study to more independent and self-directed study, aiming to provide you to take a critical stance to theories, findings and approaches of the discipline.
This course will be assessed using a variety of methods which will could vary depending upon the module.
The Coventry University Group assessment strategy ensures that our courses are fairly assessed and allows us to monitor student progression towards the achieving the intended learning outcomes. Assessments may include exams, individual assignments or group work elements.
In practice, social workers are required to demonstrate a high level of reasoning based on best evidence; discuss, debate and reflect upon and test hypotheses; demonstrate extensive skills that are underpinned by theory and method; and be able to explore ethical dilemmas. They are also required to communicate clearly in focused notes and reports and articulate these decisions via a variety of media such as written reports, presentations and other mediums such as technology.
The PgCert Advanced Adult Social Work’s assessment strategy is therefore designed to reflect these demands.
Upon successful completion of the course, you should be able to:
- Demonstrate that you have developed your social work practice and achieved the outcomes via the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) or its equivalent
- Demonstrate that you have developed a comprehensive and critical understanding of the requirements of the Practice Education Professional Standards (PEPS) Stage 1 and their application to the theoretical underpinnings of adult learning and the supervision and assessment of others
- Demonstrate skills and knowledge aligned with the relevant levels of the Professional Capabilities Framework and the Knowledge and Skills Statements
- Evidenced a critical understanding of practice education paradigms, an awareness of ethical dilemmas, and consolidated their learning around anti-oppressive practice when working with students and newly qualified social workers (NQSW)
- Apply a range of transferable skills including, but not limited to, working independently and within teams, mentoring others, digital literacy, decision-making and assessment, report writing, communicating effectively via different media and self-management strategies to self-organise time and workload.
For the course you will have 32 hours in seminars, 7 hours of tutorials, 10 hours in workshops and 426 hours of work-based learning. You will also undertake 125 hours self-guided learning.
You will be required to work collaboratively and this will provide opportunities for development of intercultural competencies in the diverse student population that we expect to access this course. One of the key course learning objectives is that you develop a global perspective of both the theory and practice and so the development of a critical understanding of global issues will be embedded in specific modules.
Global ready
Did you know we help more students travel internationally than any other UK university according to data from the experts in higher education data and analysis, HESA?
In 2018/19, we were able to provide a total of 5,469 experiences abroad that lasted at least five days.
Much of this travel is made possible through our Global Leaders Programme, which enables students to prepare for the challenges of the global employment market, as well as strengthening and developing their broader personal and professional skills.
Explore our international experiences1st for
International experiences
Sending more students overseas than any other UK uni 2016/17
5,469
Student experiences
The number of student trips abroad for at least 5 days in 2018/19
12,000
and counting
The number of students we’ve helped travel internationally since 2016
12
global programmes
As well as trips, we offer other opportunities like language courses
Entry Requirements
Tuition Fees
We pride ourselves on offering competitive tuition fees which we review on an annual basis and offer a wide range of scholarships to support students with their studies. Course fees are calculated on the basis of what it costs to teach each course and we aim for total financial transparency.
Course essentials - additional costs
- This course may incur additional costs associated with any field trips, placements or work experience, study abroad opportunities or any other opportunity (whether required or optional), which could include (but is not limited to) travel, accommodation, activities and visas.
EU student fees
EU nationals starting in the 2020/21 academic year remain eligible for the same fees as home students and the same financial support. Financial support comes from Student Finance England, and covers undergraduate and postgraduate study for the duration of their course, providing they meet the residency requirement.
For tuition fee loans
EU nationals starting in the 2020/21 academic year must have resided in the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland for the three years prior to the start of their course. The purpose of that three year residency should not have been mainly for the purpose of receiving full time education.
For maintenance loans
EU nationals starting in the 2020/21 academic year must have resided in the UK and Islands for the five years prior to the start of their course. The purpose of that five year residency should not have been mainly for the purpose of receiving full time education.
Career prospects
Graduate Immigration Route visa
Based on current information from the UK Government, international students whose study extends beyond summer 2021 may be eligible for a visa under the UK Government’s Graduate Immigration Route, which will enable students to stay and work, or look for work, in the UK at any skill level for up to two (2) years. Check the most up to date guidance available to check your eligibility and any updates from the UK Government before making an application or enrolment decision.
All students on the course will already be in employment as qualified social workers. However, the course aims to enhance employability through a variety of initiatives including providing the opportunity for the further development of transferable skills (e.g. communication and assessment skills, leadership and mentoring skills).
These skills help develop the qualities needed for employment in circumstances requiring sound judgement, personal responsibility and initiative in complex and unpredictable professional environments.
You will also have access to the Employability Support Team and can be supported with writing CVs, job applications, etc.
Disclaimer
By accepting your offer of a place and enrolling with us, a Student Contract will be formed between you and the university. A copy of the 2020/21 Contract can be found here. The Contract details your rights and the obligations you will be bound by during your time as a student and contains the obligations that the university will owe to you. You should read the Contract before you accept an offer of a place and before you enrol at the university.
The tuition fee for the course that is stated on the course webpage and in the prospectus for the first year of study will apply. We will review our tuition fees each year. For UK and EU students, if Parliament permit an increase in tuition fees, we may increase fees for each subsequent year of study in line with any such changes. Note that any increase is expected to be in line with inflation. Following the UK’s exit from the European Union, EU students should be aware that there may be a change to UK laws following the UK’s exit, this may change their student status, their eligibility to study part time, and/or their eligibility for student finance. We will act in accordance with the UK’s laws in force in relation to student tuition fees and finance from time to time.
For International students the tuition fee that is stated on the course webpage and in the prospectus for the first year of study will apply. We will review our tuition fees each year. For international students, we may increase fees for each subsequent year of study but such increases will be no more than 5% above inflation.
