Social care workers provide professional individual or group care to clients with personal and social needs, in a caring, compassionate, non-judgmental way. Client groups include children and adolescents in residential care; young people in detention schools; people with intellectual or physical disabilities; people who are homeless; people with alcohol/drug dependency; families in the community, older people, and asylum-seekers/refugees.

Social care work is based on interpersonal relationships. It requires empathy, strong communication skills, self-awareness and an ability to use critical reflection. Teamwork and interdisciplinary work are also important.

This programme will familiarise you with the latest concepts and theoretical developments in the relevant academic disciplines, and help you to develop as a self-aware, reflective, altruistic, empathic social care professional. You’ll develop skills relevant to social care practice and benefit from supervised exposure to social care practice, using three practice placements. These will help you to make an informed choice as to which area of practice you are best suited.

Subjects studied include social care work with older people and people with disabilities; social policy and social justice; psychology and human development; professional practice; law in social care work; safeguarding children and vulnerable adults; working with communities; social policy-making, and social psychology.

Work Placement

You will undertake a work placement in Years 1, 2 and 3.

On graduation, you may proceed to postgraduate studies leading to the award of MSc, MPhil or PhD at research institutes and universities worldwide.

Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) is Ireland’s first Technological University, offering a unique range of programmes and disciplines, with pathways to graduation from foundation and apprenticeship to undergraduate and doctoral levels. TU Dublin is the University where the arts, business, sciences, engineering and technology converge, and its 28,500 students and researchers come from all over Ireland and from all parts of the globe. TU Dublin has well-developed campuses in Dublin City and in the two largest areas of population growth in the Greater Dublin Region – Blanchardstown and Tallaght. Now, a new campus is being developed on a spectacular 73-acre site at Grangegorman in central Dublin. This is the largest higher education development project in Europe. The campus will provide an exceptional learning environment that supports research, innovation, and the advancement of knowledge and will welcome more than 10,000 students in September 2020. A further 5,000 students will relocate to the campus by 2022.

With an international outlook, TU Dublin welcome students and staff from around the world while TU’s strong international partnerships provide opportunities for student and staff exchange programmes, major cross-collaboration research projects, and employment opportunities. TU Dublin is immensely proud of its network of 100,000+ TU Dublin graduates who are making their careers here in Ireland and in 70 countries worldwide.

new campus at Grangegorman, which is the largest investment in Higher Education in Ireland, brings together many of our activities in one vibrant, cutting-edge campus, providing our students with an incomparable educational experience. Together with our campuses in Aungier Street, Bolton Street, Blanchardstown, and Tallaght, Grangegorman provides a welcoming working environment where our students and staff can explore their abilities and reach their full potential.

The current development phase at Grangegorman saw the East Quad open in late 2020 - you can see a video of the building here while the Central Quad began welcoming small numbers of students, public health guidelines permitting, from April 2021. The buildings are now fully operational and accommodate 10,000 students. Further to this, three existing buildings have been significantly upgraded and refurbished to offer a range of facilities and services to both students and staff - Lower House, Rathdown House, and Park House.