Goodbye DIPSW: trends in student satisfaction and employment outcomes. some implications for the new social work award

Abstract

During the last decade, the University of East London conducted a series of surveys of newly qualified social workers in the UK for CCETSW and the Department of Health. Headed by Dr Karen Lyons and Mary Wallis Jones, the research was carried out in the years 1993–97, 2000 and 2002. The purpose of the surveys was to identify whether qualifying social workers were meeting the needs of employers and whether social work education was meeting the needs of students. This article gives an overview of the results of the surveys which have much to tell us about satisfaction rates of new social workers, gaps in social work education, the relevance of their completed diplomas and their prospective employment options upon completion, over the last decade. This research therefore has much to teach us regarding the policy development of the forthcoming three‐year degree.