It’s your appreciation of what social work, childhood, and youth studies is all about, and how you reflect on your experiences, skills, and prior reading that will indicate to admissions tutors whether or not you’re a good fit. Read on for some tips on how to focus your application, and see what you may need to do to strengthen it.
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Think about why you want to study the subject
- Have you been inspired by someone, a news story, a documentary, or a podcast?
- Do you have career aspirations in this area of study?
- What interests you about the subject – be specific; rather than saying you enjoy it or are good at it, try to explain the ‘why’ behind your reasoning.
- What do you already know about the subject and what are you looking forward to learning more about?
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What makes you suitable to study the subject?
- Have you done projects or essays in this subject at school or college?
- Think about who you are as a person; your personality, your strengths, your experiences in life – how do these make you suited to study the subject?
- How have you shown an interest in the subject outside of school or college – have you done extra reading, online courses, been part of clubs or competitions?
- Your current subjects and grades will be included elsewhere in your application, so try to think about specific things you’ve learned during your studies that relate to the subject, rather than listing your grades and subjects.
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Look at the bigger picture
- Have you done any work experience, an internship or had a part-time job in this subject area or related? Most job or work experience will give you transferable skills, even if it’s in a different industry.
- Do you have any hobbies you can mention that might relate to your chosen subject? Many hobbies show that you can be motivated outside of school to achieve and succeed in something you’re interested in.
- Think about how your life and personal experiences have helped make you the person you are today, and how these challenges and experiences can support your application by evidencing essential qualities for certain subjects.
- If you’ve got ambitions and goals for your life and career, can you express how this subject will help you reach these goals?
Guidance and examples you can use
Question 1: Why do you want to study this course or subject?
This is your opportunity to showcase your passion and knowledge of your chosen subject area and to demonstrate to universities and colleges why it’s a good fit for you and your future ambitions.
Examples:
- Your statement should demonstrate an understanding of what social work, childhood, and youth studies as a profession is all about – along with the skills, knowledge, and experience you’ll bring to it.
- Discuss what you’ve learned or what's inspired you from relevant books, magazines like Professional Social Work, websites, documentaries such as a particular episode of Panorama, or social issues reported in the media, but perhaps steer away from talking about popular literature.
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It’s fine to talk about personal experiences that shaped your interest in the degree, especially if you’re a mature applicant, but be prepared to talk openly about it at interview.
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Show a willingness to engage with issues that span the entire spectrum of social work, including the elderly. You can then also mention specific modules, or areas that interest you, as long as it’s relevant to the course you’re applying for.
Question 2: How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?
This is your chance to shout about the relevant or transferable skills you’ve gained from your formal education and highlight your understanding of how they will help you succeed in this subject area.
Examples:
- Reflect on an aspect of your academic learning, whether from your psychology or sociology studies, or through art and design, and explain what it has taught you about social work, or any appropriate skills it has helped you develop. If it’s relevant to you, perhaps mention barriers you've overcome yourself too.
- Think about solid illustrative examples of your skills in action, especially if those skills are relevant to social work – like the organisational skills, commitment, motivation, and the ability to work effectively with others that you’ll have gained through your studies and revision.
- Relevant transferable skills from employment or extracurricular activities could also be worth mentioning.
- Have you done any online courses to boost your knowledge in the subject? For example, why not try Subject Spotlights or Virtual Work Experiences from Springpod to grow your skills and interest?
Question 3: What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?
This is your chance to talk about any other activities you have undertaken outside of your formal education, or personal experiences which further demonstrate your suitability for the course. This section is likely to be highly personal to you and anything you do include should reflect on why you’re including it.
Examples:
- Make the most of every opportunity to gain experience of supporting people: in care homes, community schemes, youth clubs, play schemes, holiday clubs, after-school clubs, nurseries, mentoring, anti-bullying schemes, or working with the elderly or people with a disability. Always demonstrate what you’ve learned from your experience, and how it has helped you develop appropriate skills or qualities.
- Demonstrate your resilience and the ability to analyse situations critically. Maybe you’ve had to intervene and stop a fight at school, or maybe you’ve failed a driving test or music exam several times but decided to keep trying until you passed. Reflect on what you learned from these situations and how it will help you in social work, childhood, or youth studies.
- Give examples of other hobbies or activities that show your other relevant attributes, whether that’s empathy from childminding or working in a care home, working well under pressure due to taking part in maths, gymnastics, or singing competitions, or knowing how to switch off after a stressful day by baking, going to the gym, or listening to podcasts.
- Do relate any examples back to the subject you’re applying to – make it relevant
- Do make it personal – admissions staff want to get to know who you are
- Do use a spell-checker and grammar-checker to ensure there are no errors
- Do ask people for feedback, whether that’s family members or teachers
- Do your research to find out what universities are looking for, and make sure you include evidence to show how you are suitable for the course
- Don’t just list out examples, subjects you study, or experiences you’ve had without any evidence
- Don’t copy something you’ve seen online or use AI to write something for you
- Don’t make things up just because you think they’ll make you look good on paper
- Don’t leave it until the last minute – you need time for several drafts
- Don’t worry about making each section the same length; as long as you hit the minimum character count, you can use the 4,000 characters across each answer in the way that suits you best
How to set yourself apart
The key to setting yourself apart in your application is to remember how important the ‘personal’ bit is to your personal statement. What makes you, you?
Try to avoid clichés – say more than just 'I have a passion for helping people' or 'I am a people person', by demonstrating how and why. This is a career that will require you to work objectively within professional boundaries. Give examples if you’ve ever worked in a large, professional organisation like a corporate business or the NHS, and what you learned from it that you can apply to a social work role.
You should also be able to show values of non-discriminatory behaviour and an understanding of the effects of disadvantage in society. This could be through lived experience or via the area you’ve grown up in or the school you attend. If you’ve got work experience that can reflect this – maybe through volunteering in a soup kitchen or at a refugee charity – then even better.
Tell admissions tutors something unique about you. Perhaps you’ve listened to podcasts such as Feel Better, Live More, or The Happiness Lab, or you use meditation apps such as Calm or Headspace, which demonstrate you’ve already learned strategies for managing stress. Maybe you’ve travelled abroad and worked as a nanny for a family in France or Germany, or perhaps you went interrailing and learned more from what went wrong than from what went right!
Finally, if you can, link your insights and experiences back to something you’ve seen on a TED Talk, read in The Times or The Guardian, or heard on Radio 4’s Start The Week.
Some more tips to consider
- Research the course: Why do you want to study social work, childhood, and youth studies, what specific aspects of the course interest you? How does it relate to your academic studies, and what additional reading or other activities have led you to apply?
- Speak to people already doing it: Talk to social workers about the work they do, what they like about it, and what recent developments have impacted on their work, and then reflect on this in your statement.
- Go to open days: Going to university open days or conferences and talking to students and tutors will offer you some extra insights into the course.
- Examples of your relevant skills: Can you describe situations where you’ve demonstrated relevant skills like good communication or teamwork, problem-solving, initiative, or resilience?
- Transferable skills: Whether through extracurricular or supercurricular activities, work experience, or a part-time job, you’ll have lots of other skills that will be relevant to your course. Try to think outside the box – ok, so you organise the school basketball team; can you explain how that has helped with your planning, management, communication skills, and empathy?