Overcoming Barriers to Social Work Education:

Meeting the WP targetBeverley Crooks and

Cathy Aymer

The ContextThe Context

• Government preoccupations and new qualification for Social Work

• Historical position- age restriction lifted

• English and Maths requirement

• Already started their pre degree courses

• Full time and employment based students

• Intervention needed to enable a group to attend in 2003

Creative Thinking

• Pre 1992 university • Working collaboratively – social work

admissions, central admissions and WP• Interpretation of pre-entry guidance and

making funds available to set up maths programme

• Challenging internal systems• Creativity of intervention and of people

delivering the programme

Student Profile

• Ethnicity, Age,

• Prior experience of and attitude to Maths

• Why Brunel and not other university?

• Scores at diagnostic and at test

• Student comments

• Boundary Crossing

The Research

• Gather the baseline data• Track the student experience over the lifetime

of course• Interview them at end of first year and soon

after the start of year three• What are their outcomes - retention -Scores

in the supported learning module – degree classifications - course leader views

Student Voices

• Boundary crossing

• Confidence building

• Attitude to learning

Conclusions

• Impact on students

• Impact on institutions – the approach to pre entry provision has been institutionalised

• Maintain the recruitment of under-represented students