Smile, ask questions and prepare for a cake belly: advice for new social work students

Practitioners shared their advice with students beginning their degree

happy
Photo: Ellica/Fotolia

For many social work students this is the week they start their courses. Or, if my experience of university is to anything to go by, it is the week they begin small talk with new flatmates before the work begins.

A wide variety of students, mature and young, doing a masters or an undergrad, are taking their first forays into the social work profession.

To support social work students, or possibly warn them, existing practitioners used the hashtag #swfreshers16 to pass on advice to those beginning their long journey into social work.

Here are some of the responses:

More from Community Care

3 Responses to Smile, ask questions and prepare for a cake belly: advice for new social work students

  1. Mary September 16, 2016 at 10:32 am #

    Remember why we do the job in the first place. At the end of each day, find something that went well, no matter how small and hold onto it. This was advice given to me as a young support worker in a NHS unit and it has got me through some awful days.

  2. Matt Graham September 16, 2016 at 12:51 pm #

    Inspirational life-coaching advice all good for now but won’t sustain for long. Being research minded and considering the evidence base for all interventions will offer credibility in studies and future practice. The skill of social work isn’t what you know, it’s how you know what you know.

  3. Hamaira September 16, 2016 at 10:49 pm #

    Got on for a last minute interview on Monday. Any help with what may come up on the written test