Social care is a profession where people work in partnership with those who experience marginalisation or disadvantage or who have special needs. Social care practitioners may work, for example, with children and adolescents in residential care, people with learning or physical disabilities, the homeless, people with alcohol/drug dependency, families in the community, older people, and recent immigrants to Ireland.

Social care practitioners will typically work in a direct person to person capacity with the users of services. They will seek to provide an environment in which various social, educational and relationship interventions can take place in the day to day living space of the service user.

This one year Add-On level 8 course at the ITT is delivered through lectures, workshops and guest lectures visit.At level 7,  it was essential that students developed practical working skills/methods and to demonstrate their competence in performing social care roles,  the fieldwork visits/placements were structured into the course to ensure that graduates were fully prepared for the diversity that the sector can offer. 

The level 8 course focuses on refining and augmenting the theoretical knowledge base in the area of social care and also provides an excellent grounding in research skills and policy making.  Level 8 graduates will be required to deal with change and  become effective change agents.  In order to do this, they must be capable of informed critical thought and action, which will be facilitated by this honours degree programme.

Due to the broad range of discipline areas covered on the course there are a wide variety of career opportunities for graduates in the public and voluntary sector, in the areas of residential care, outreach, alcohol/drug dependency, family support, community care, older people, juvenile justice and community childcare services.

Graduates can also work as carers of children in need of care and protection, carers of children with special needs, carers of adults with special needs and or behavioural difficulties. Community care workers are involved in providing outreach and family support services for children and adults living at home.

Career options exist in a variety of settings including the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the substantial voluntary and community sectors.The broad nature of the placement experience on this programme provides students with an opportunity to decide what they are best suited to.

Level 8 graduates have expertise in the area of policy formation, management and research / project skills which will afford them career opportunities in social care settings that require these higher order skill sets.