Training in Careers Guidance at UWE
(Full Time Award)
TRAINING IN CAREERS GUIDANCE AT UWE
UWE has been training Careers Advisers to work in Career Companies, Connexions Services, FE and HE Colleges and the private sector for over 30 years.
THE QUALIFICATION IN CAREER GUIDANCE
The Qualification in Career Guidance (QCG) is the current UK wide professional qualification for Careers Advisers awarded by the Instituteof Career Guidance (ICG).
UWE offers a range of Full and Part-time programmes in Guidance, two of which lead directly to the Qualification in Career Guidance (QCG) as described below.
UWE PROGRAMMES
The Postgraduate Diploma in Careers Guidance (QCG) (Full Time)
The PG Diploma in Careers guidance arranges all professional skills assessments by appropriately qualified staff and the support and supervision in appropriate workplaces necessary for the QCG.
The Postgraduate Diploma in Vocational/Educational Guidance (QCG) (Part Time) The Post Graduate Diploma in Vocational/Educational guidance QCG is only available to candidates already working in a guidance agency which offers careers guidance. This is because the employer must provide much of the work-based assessments by appropriately qualified staff and support and supervision in an appropriate workplace.
Both the Full and Part Time Postgraduate Diploma in Careers Guidance will lead to the QCG and qualify graduates to work as Careers Advisers and Personal Advisers in Connexions Services.
FULL TIME GUIDANCE AWARD
Postgraduate Diploma in Careers Guidance (QCG)
This is an intensive nine month programme (September - June) requiring students to undertake several work-based attachments in Connexions Services, Schools and Community Agencies as well as college attendance.
On graduation, students will complete their professional training as Careers Advisers, Personal Advisers or both, in an appropriate guidance agency.
The award has 22 places.
Fees
The 2010-11 feefor thePostgraduate Diploma in Careers Guidance (QCG) (Full Time)is £3,100. Fees increase year on year – please enquire for details.
(Please note that the UWE fees for overseas and offshore students are higher. Please visit: for up-to-date course and fee information).
In order to register with the Institute of Career Guidance, (the awarding body for the professional qualification, the QCG), students pay a further fee.The 2010-11fee was £315 and is subject to change for subsequent years.
Funding
Most students take out Career Development Loans – details available from Banks.They could also investigate discretionary LEA awards, traineeships – occasionally offered by Career/Connexions Services, Charitable Trusts (Directories in Libraries).
In some years, postgraduate means-tested bursaries may also be available through UWE. There is also an Access to Learning Fund which may be available for students who are in financial difficulty.Please contact our Student Advice and Welfare Service (SAWS) on 0117 32 82822 for more information.
Entry requirements
Students will normally possess a degree or equivalent from a recognised university. However,students who do not meet the minimum academic entry requirements but have significant life and/or work experience will be considered on an individual basis (andwill be asked to send in a short essay, following their selection day).
Experience
Any experience of working with people in a helping or advisory capacity, or with young people in any capacity, either paid or voluntary, would be an advantage though not a requirement.
Applications from members of under-represented groups are most welcome.
Structure of the Award
The programme delivers a very full, initial, professional training and is therefore demanding in terms of both attendance and study time.
Practice and Work-based learning
From early in the programme students will be involved in guidance activity. Interviewing and group work with young people, visits to employers, training providers and community agencies as well as support for schools, will be regular activities, interspersed with workshops and lectures from key speakers in the profession.
There will also be work-based placements in Connexions/Careers Services (3 weeks in November and 3 weeks in April/May) and in Schools, Further Education and Community Agencies throughout the year.
[One Connexions/Careers placement may involve being away from the Bristolarea; where possible we endeavour to organise placementswithin travelling distance of your home].
Modules
Learning is organised into the following module areas:
- Guidance Theory and Practice – Interviewing
- Guidance Theory and Practice – Group work
- The Context of Guidance
- Careers Education
- Understanding the Opportunity Structure
Assessment
There are no exams.
Most modules are assessed by one written assignment of between 3,000 and 5,000 words. Three modules have additional skills requirements normally assessed by observation, such as Interviewing and Group work. One module is assessed by a short presentation to a group of peers.
Portfolio - Qualification in Career Guidance (QCG)
The assessments generated through UWE’s Postgraduate Diploma are collated during the year to form an individual student portfolio. This forms the foundation for professional development when entering the profession.
Credit Rating
The Postgraduate Diploma in Careers Guidance (QCG) is normally credit-rated at 120 ‘M’ points, but some Level 3 modules may also be acceptable.
This may contribute substantially, through Accredited Learning, to a Masters Degree at UWE. On completion of the Postgraduate Diploma, students can undertake a research module and a dissertation to gain an MA in Guidance.
Selection Process
All candidates,except for those living abroad at the time of application,must be interviewed at UWE, Bristol.
For more detailed information please read the Frequently Asked Questions section below. If you then have further questions please contact:
Nicola Liles – Education Admissions Team
Tel: 0117 3284126
E-mail:
Mary Dempsey – Full Time Programme Leader
Tel: 0117 32 84176
E-Mail:
You can apply online for this course at:
Application forms for the full time award are available from:
Admissions & International Development
UWE, Frenchay Campus
Coldharbour Lane, Bristol, BS16 1QY
Tel: 0117 32 83333
E-mail:
If you are interested in applying for the Postgraduate Diploma in Careers Guidance (QCG), please return the application form to the address above. No offers will be able to be confirmed without receipt of satisfactory references.
Postgraduate Diploma in Careers Guidance (QCG) (Full Time)
Frequently Asked Questions:
1) How much does the award cost?
Please enquire for the latest fees. To give you an indication, the fee for UWE's PG Diplomain 2010-11was £3100. In order to register with the Institute of Career Guidance (the awarding body for the professional qualification, the QCG) a further fee is required(£315 in 2009-10).
2) When should I apply?
You can apply from September and we will accept applications up until the following May or even June. After this, we may still accept applications for a waiting list place, in case applicants withdraw.
3) What funding is available?
Students are eligible for Career Development loans and in recent years most students have taken these up.
4) What are the attendance patterns?
When students are not on placement, the programme is scheduled for attendance on Monday to Thursday each week and Friday is a study day.
There is a bi-weekly pattern:
Week 1 would involve a wide range of activities, not necessarily ‘full’ days, for example:
Monday am: Interviewing lecture; pm: professional speaker on Working with Deaf Clients.
Tuesday: working with a group of young people from a local secondary school. This may involve you with your peers going to the school, accompanying the youngsters back to UWE on the bus, delivering group work on a careers topic, interviewing young people and getting feedback from a professional about your skills development.
Wednesday:visiting a construction company to discuss the range of work, plus information on recruitment and training routes.
Thursdayam: helping out on a school Widening Participation morning; pm: interviewing personal advisers for your research.
Week 2would involve lectures and speakers, often on themed topics, for example two days on the Opportunity Structure.
Days would be more likely to run between 09.30 and 16.30. Some time would also be set aside for the preparation of practice and it would be up to your work teams to decide when and where this happened.
Because so much of the work depends on the 'real world’, students need to be flexible about how they arrange their work and need good organisational skills to use their time well.
5) What about attendance when on placement?
During the periods of placement in Connexions, careers companies and schools students will need to adhere to the organisation's attendance requirement,which is normally office hours with occasional evenings, eg Parents’ Evenings.
6) Are there exams?
There are no exams. There is a mixture of assessment types. We assess written assignments, presentations and professional skills such as interviewing and group work with young people.
7) What is the ratio of practical to academic work?
It is very high; you will spend at least two thirds of the award in the following professional practice activities:
- Placement periods in the Connexions / Careers Service and/or other guidance agencies, Secondary Schools and Community agencies.
- Visiting Employers and Training and Education providers.
- Working directly, delivering interviews and group work to young people from local schools.
The concentration of lecture input varies throughout the year but averages two out of every eight days’ activity.
8) I haven’t been to University before; will I cope with the written work?
This isn’t an easy question to answer as some people who have recently completed study in Higher Education can find the written work hard and equally some people with no or dated HE experience seem to manage very well. If you don’t have a recognized HE qualification we would ask you to complete a short assignment prior to being accepted onto the programme. This is not a test, but we care for the wellbeing of our students and don’t want any of the work to cause undue stress. We want our students to succeed and are conscious that there are cost implications. The university also runs a number of other support programmes such as study skills and ICT skills.
9) Can you explain the placements?
Currently the two longer placements, both in Connexions / Careers Services, are for periods of three weeks in November and April/May. We ask candidates to indicate where they could attend such a placement once they have been offered a place.
A shorter school placement occurs in January and the Community Agency placements are in March. Increasingly, students also have opportunities to undertake short placements in organisations that hold particular interest for them eg HE/FE Careers services, Special Schools etc.
The programme tutors arrange Connexions, Careers Service and School placements. The student normally arranges other placements.
10) What are the job prospects like?
For the last twenty yearsclose to 90 % of students successfully completing this award has gained employment as career guidance workers or in highly related employment. The majority find work as professional advisers in Connexions/Careers companies. A smaller group enter Further or Higher Education, schools and the private sector as Career Advisers. A range of agencies including charities such as RNID, RNIB and MENCAP employ career advisers, as do projects working to rehabilitate specific groups.
Increasingly our students are obtaining posts as Learning Mentors and Aim Higher Co-ordinators, Engagement workers and in other areas of the Government's inclusion policies.
The Department of Education has made every effort to make this flyer as accurate as possible at the time of going to press. We will do our best to delivery study programmes as described in the flyer. However there may be changes following publication and we reserve the right to make changes to the content or mode of delivery of a programme.
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