Corina: Studying social work at LSBU I would describe as exciting, challenging, you get
to know yourself a lot more, you meet some really interesting service users and practitioners
and we get to make a real difference.
Dominique: I wanted to study here because I'd heard really positive things about it,
I looked at the website and I saw how diverse the course was in terms of the types of subjects
that the course offers is more diverse in comparison to other universities.
Dan: There was a really good mix of experience from the different lecturers on the course
who had experience right from adult mental health experience to child protection. Because
a number of those lecturers were still in practice themselves they were up to speed
with legislative and policy changes, but also how those things were playing out in the workplace
at that moment in time in local authorities and elsewhere.
David: The staff have been invaluable in everyone's journey to becoming a professional. The team
have got a very diverse range of experience in social work and related fields and they're
able to bring that into the classroom and really tell us what it's like out in the community.
Dan: I think the most exiting or perhaps the best parts for most students and certainly
for me was where you get to put your theoretical learning and your skills based learning into
practice. When I did that in my first practice placement, working in a prison and working
directly with prisoners and being able to make a difference towards people's lives.
Dominique: My placements have been very positive although quite challenging. My first placement
was in a referral and assessment team so that was sort of, dealing with front line child
protection work. My second placement is working with vulnerable adolescents, so both of them
have involved extensive work with families and children, and they've been really positive,
mainly because of the support I got from my managers and also the support I've got from
my tutor when she comes out to see me during our review meetings, so I've had really good
experiences on placement.
David: I think another unique thing about the social work course at LSBU is the active
involvement of service users in the teaching. They, we get to meet service users, who are
the kind of people, you know, who we'd be working with when we qualified and that's
a really valuable experience.
Christine: I think it's a tremendous benefit to the students having service users like
myself on the course in that it enriches and rewards the learning experience. It introduces
them to representatives of their client base in another capacity other than a client. We
are there as, you know, part of the learning programme. We're teaching, we're delivering,
we're lecturing, we're educating, we're informing, we're narrating our experiences. That is another
dynamic that they might not have seen had we not been part of the programme.
David: LSBU really embraces the principle of diversity, which I think is great for a
university, but it's especially important for social work that we have a workforce that
does reflect the diversity of society.
Dan: Absolutely I'd certainly recommend studying here at South Bank because of the diversity
of the course, the experience of the lecturers, they're involvement with current practice,
the location of the university, because of its links and just because I think that we.
that it also has quite a specialism with service user involvement which is being developed
and that's absolutely critical in terms of social work and becoming a good value based
social worker.
Corina: I would definitely recommend for people to apply for this course because the support
staff and the lecturers are really helpful. The students are really great, really interesting
from various parts of the world and it's just been really fantastic, lots of things to do,
its central, and yeah, it's just fantastic.