This programme is designed to build on the links between social work research and practice in a range of settings to develop the skills required by practice-based professionals and postgraduate students interested in carrying out social work and social care research. You will learn the skills researchers need in order to maximise the impact of their work in addressing real issues of concern with policy makers, managers, practitioners and service users in social work and care. The programme offers a unique combination of academic rigour, up-to-date practice content and relevant and transferable research skills development. Core units will draw on theories and research methods from across the social sciences - including economics, law and philosophy - providing you with a strong foundation with which to carry out your own research. Optional units build on the school's particular research expertise and will focus on the skills you will require as a social work researcher engaged with a variety of disciplines. For example, you may choose to study community development programmes in the context of poverty, interventions to tackle domestic violence, or programmes for young offenders. Other optional units focus on the wellbeing of particular groups such as children with disabilities, people with severe and long-term mental illness, or asylum seekers and migrants. We recognise that students will be joining with relevant, albeit varied, experience and there will be opportunities for you to draw on your own experiences as researchers, managers and policy advisers and to share these with other participants on the programme. A unique co-learning environment also allows students an opportunity to interact and share insights with other interest groups across postgraduate programmes. The programme emphasises the development of social work and social research and analysis methods, as well as substantive knowledge. Graduates from our MSc in Social Work Research often go on to careers as social work and care researchers or analysts, or research commissioners/managers in public or private agencies, both in the UK and internationally. Potential employers include local or central government departments, voluntary or charitable organisations, national or international non-governmental organisations, or international institutions such as the European Union.