Overview
This is a four-year honours degree programme. On completion of year 3 of the programme, students achieve a level 7 qualification which is approved by CORU, Ireland's Health and Social Care Professionals regulator.
Social care is a profession where people work with those who experience marginalisation or disadvantage or who have special needs. Social care practitioners work in a wide variety of settings with a wide variety of people: 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 or recent immigrants to Ireland. Social care practitioners typically work in a direct person-to-person capacity with service users.
They will try to provide an environment in which various social, educational and relationship interventions can take place where the service user lives. Work in the sector is usually interdisciplinary. Typically, social care workers, social workers, early childhood care workers and so on work together in teams. This programme is delivered through a blend of lectures, workshops and two full semesters of off-site, supervised practice placement.
In this programme, it is essential that students develop practical working skills in a variety of real-world settings and demonstrate their competence in performing social care roles. To make sure that graduates are fully prepared for the diversity that this job offers, field work visits and placements are an integral part of the programme.