I’m Lisa Cassius and I am a newly qualified social worker (NQSW) who recently qualified after a long four years of study. I am fully aware that the job market for NQSWs is very poor, what with the recession and job cuts throughout the private and public sector. Many NQSWs are struggling to find work and have to apply for roles that do not require a degree in social work, such as family support workers and social work assistant jobs, in order to gain experience before they can be employed as a social worker.

For me, my experience has been quite different. I started to apply for social work assistant positions whilst I was in my final year of study, in order to gain confidence and experience of social work. I found work in an independent fostering agency called Rainbow Fostering Services, which supported me and helped develop my skills, knowledge and judgement as I worked with foster carers and looked after children from local authorities throughout the UK.

Now that I have qualified, my role within Rainbow has changed and I am involved in more interesting work that I can really get my teeth into. My new role includes a mixture of social work tasks, such as the recruitment of new foster carers, assessing applicants who come forward to foster, co-facilitating foster carers training and supervising our current and newly approved foster carers.

I am certainly embracing the role and constantly looking at ways to improve our systems and recruit a high standard of foster carers who are flexible and can meet the diverse needs of the children we have in our care system.

Although the role of a social worker is challenging and at times can leave you feeling powerless, it is also a rewarding profession, and the feeling of empowering and supporting others achieve their life goals and ambitions is close to no other. As I support foster carers in the work they do, I work towards achieving better outcomes for children and young people in care and that in itself is the biggest achievement in my career so far.

My advice to NQSWs struggling to find a social work position would be to try to develop in unqualified positions. This way you can gain experience, develop your skills and prove your worth; then hopefully you will be considered when a vacancy for a qualified post arises.

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I found 4social work a good place to start, the guys I spoke with were clued up and really helpful particularly with NQSW check them out www.4socialwork.com

terry hills
09 Nov 2011

An encouraging article for NQSW, very well written by Lisa Cassius. With a sound advice on personal development and the rewards gained from a profession in Social Work.rn

Shobha Bhudia
24 Oct 2011

A massive well done to Lisa. after all her hard work of qualifying she is finally rewarded with a job to practice her new valuable skills in. best of luck for her future..

John Williams.
14 Sep 2011

Thanks for such an insighting advice. I have worked in Health and Social Care for 6 years and feel I have the needed experience to practise as a social worker after gaining my degree qualification which I thought would be beneficial to my service. As a newly qualified social worker, it seems to me that employers do not seem to understand the input the NQSWs bring into their services. I wonder where we can gain the needed experience from if employers do not consider us even for the interviews. I am always put off by the fact that about 99% of the advertised jobs insist on candidates to have 2 years post qualifying experience. What is the GSCC doing to ensure that the newly qualified are attracted into employment?

Moment Ngara
09 Sep 2011

Thanks for your article. I qualified 2010, with a degree in mental health nursing and social work. I am doing the nursing side at the moment with social work elements, but I often thinks about doing voluntary or an unqualified role to gain more experience and increase confidence in the social work. You have given good advice that I will find a way to act on. Thank you and all the best in your career : )

Rachel
08 Sep 2011