Practice Education PGCert

Study level: Postgraduate
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The Postgraduate Certificate (PgCert) in Practice Education has been designed to build on your early career development and to facilitate your development as an experienced and expert practitioner in social work with the ability to teach, mentor and assess others in the workplace.

Year of entry

Location

Coventry University (Coventry)

Study mode

Part-time
Online/Blended

Duration

2 years part-time

Course code

HLST173

Start date

September 2025
January 2026

The information on this page is for 2024-25 entry and should be used as guidance for 2025-26 entry. Please keep checking back on this course page to see our latest updates.


Course overview

The aim of this course is to give practising social workers the opportunity to enhance their career prospects via gaining a postgraduate level qualification.

The programme is designed to equip you with the knowledge, values and skills required to gain both stage 1 and 2 of the PEPS (Practice Educator’s Professional Standards) and assess others in the workplace.

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Rated Gold Overall

Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) 2023

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5 QS Stars for Teaching and Facilities

QS Stars University Ratings

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Top 5 Student City in England (Coventry)

QS Best Student Cities Index 2025

Why you should study this course

  • Designed to give you the opportunity to develop your practice, extend your range of skills and enhance your critical reflective skills with the aim of improving service delivery.
  • Intended to be a key vehicle for social workers to gain an academic award at the same time as meeting their CPD, which is required by the current regulator.
  • Study part-time, allowing you to work towards your post-graduate certificate while in employment.
  • 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 PGCert, application and additional fees).
  • A course team with expertise in working with learners who are mature, from diverse backgrounds or have a range of individual learning needs.

What you'll study

The curriculum of this course is shaped by a number of requirements in social work practice, some of which are specific to the practice educator role. This includes the relevant levels of the Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF), the Knowledge and Skills Statements (KSS) and more directly, the Practice Educator’s Professional Standards (PEPS).

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.


How you'll learn

The course is delivered on a part-time basis studied over a two-year period to try and meet the needs of social workers who wish to study alongside their professional practice as part of their continuing professional development.

The course is planned to be delivered using a blended learning approach of both classroom teaching (taught at the Coventry University main campus in Coventry) and online learning and will be taught over the following methods:

  • Online discussions
  • Online tasks
  • Classroom teaching.

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.

This course can be offered on a part-time basis. Whilst 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. Request further information about part-time study.


Teaching contact hours

The teaching hours will vary by module, however, the expected total would be 31 hours of seminars, 5 hours of tutorials, 12 hours of lectures plus 125 hours of self-guided study and 426 hours of work-based learning.

The contact hours may be made up of a combination of face-to-face teaching, individual and group tutorials, and online classes and tutorials.

As an innovative and enterprising institution, the University may seek to utilise emerging technologies within the student experience. For all courses (whether on-campus, blended, or distance learning), the University may deliver certain contact hours and assessments via online technologies and methods.

Since COVID-19, we have delivered our courses in a variety of forms, in line with public authority guidance, decisions, or orders and we will continue to adapt our delivery as appropriate. Whether on campus or online, our key priority is staff and student safety.


Assessment

This course will be assessed using a variety of methods which will vary depending upon the module.

Assessment methods may include:

  • Supervision notes
  • Direct observation
  • Presentations
  • Written assignments
  • Nationally recognised portfolio.

The Coventry University Group assessment strategy ensures that our courses are fairly assessed and allows us to monitor student progression towards achieving the intended learning outcomes.


Entry requirements

Typical offer for 2024/25 entry.

Please note that most applicants for this course are sponsored by their employers. This means you will need to contact your learning and development team/relevant department before any application.

Applicants must hold a professional qualification in social work and be registered with the relevant regulator.

All applicants will have two years post qualification experience in order to comply with the requirements of the Practice Educator Professional Standards.

Applicants to the course will be required to supervise a social work student/learner, sourced by the university and its partners, for the modules Mentoring, Supervision and Assessment in Practice Parts 1 and 2 and Practice Teaching and Education Parts 1 and 2.

Accreditation for Prior Learning (APL) and Accreditation of Prior (Experiential) Learning AP(E)L is in accordance with university regulations as set out in paragraph 7b.3.2 and 7b.3.3 of the regulations for taught postgraduate courses

For further information about the course and how to apply, please contact Amanda Fitchett on ac0159@coventry.ac.uk.

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Fees and funding

Student Full-time Part-time
UK Not available 2025/26 fees TBC
2024/25 fees -£3,733 part time total fee
EU Not available Not available

For advice and guidance on tuition fees3 and student loans visit our Postgraduate Finance page.

Tuition fees cover the cost of your teaching, assessments, facilities and support services. There may be additional costs not covered by this fee such as accommodation and living costs, recommended reading books, stationery, printing and re-assessments should you need them.

*Irish student fees

The rights of Irish residents to study in the UK are preserved under the Common Travel Area arrangement. If you are an Irish student and meet the residency criteria, you can study in England, pay the same level of tuition fees as English students and utilise the Tuition Fee Loan.

**EU Support Bursary

Following the UK's exit from the European Union, we are offering financial support to all eligible EU students who wish to study an undergraduate or a postgraduate degree with us full-time. This bursary will be used to offset the cost of your tuition fees to bring them in line with that of UK students. Students studying a degree with a foundation year with us are not eligible for the bursary.


Facilities

As this course is taken as a blend of online and in-person teaching, a large portion of it will use our online teaching platform, which is currently Aula. This course is also part of the School of Psychological, Social and Behavioural Sciences and therefore any in-person teaching will take place in our school buildings4.

Aula is an online teaching resource, allowing you to interact with online lectures, receive detailed feedback quickly on all assessments and communicate to your fellow students in an online learning community.


Careers and opportunities

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

  • Show that you have developed your social work practice
  • Show that you have 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
  • Evidence a critical understanding of practice education paradigms, an awareness of ethical dilemmas and a consolidation of your learning around anti-oppressive practice when working with students and newly qualified social workers (NQSW)
  • Show that you have developed a comprehensive and critical understanding of the requirements of the Practice Education Professional Standards (PEPS) Stage 2 and their application to the theoretical underpinnings of adult learning and the supervision and assessment of others.

All students on this course will already be in employment as qualified social workers. However, the course aims to enhance employability through a variety of initiatives including providing opportunities to further develop 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 employability support and can be given assistance with writing CVs and job applications upon request.


How to apply

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