Psychology conversion course...any good?

[Goenka]

Hi, 

 

I have finished my Bachelors in Business Management and now want to pursue Psychology as a career. I understand its a huge shift but i have been reading a lot about psychology and have been doing social work for about a year now and am very interested to get my Masters in Counselling Psychology. I have done a lot of research on the available courses but looks like i cannot get into a Masters directly and my only option is to do a conversion course in Psychology from UK. 

My questions are:

1) Is a conversion course any good? and do i have to immediately apply for my counselling masters or can i get a job somewhere after that and wait it out for a year and get experience in the field?

2) For instance i do get into a Masters in Counselling Psychology directly, will i lag behind tremendously because i dont have the background and dont know the basics quite properly (if i do the course i will surely be reading books and study the basics of psychology online)

3) And are these conversion courses available in countries other than UK.

 

Any comments and suggestions would be highly appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance

[memyselfandcoffee]

Hi, There are a number of good conversion courses in both UK and Ireland. just check that they are accredited with BPS (British Psychological society) or the IPS (Irish psychological society) in Ireland. You can't practise as a psychologist in Ire or Uk unless your course is acreddited ( and only by those two organsiations)-- once its acredited you can also be assured of quality.In terms of content, acredited courses will be pretty simular, as there are certain courses they all have to cover to be accredited- there maybe some differences in a few courses, and so this is worth checking out, to find one you are most interested in. Most reputable MA in psychology won't accept you without having some prior credits in psychology from an acredited course. One or two will accept with a small number of credits, ie if you have taken some psych. courses in undergrad, or i know there is short course in Open uni that is acredited-- for getting credits to get onto some  MA's. Most however, require BA/Bsc in psychology or conversion course. An conversion will be easier to get onto, though they probably will require decent grades, and it is a big advantage that you have work experience.

 

Also you will need to get a 2.1 in your conversion to get onto most MA/Msc. If you ever do decide to persue the D.Clin practioner doctorate, it will be to your advantage to have 1.1 (From your MA/conversion).Like wise for Phd.

 

In terms of work experience, its very difficult to assistant psychologist post, without having good grades from accredited course and some from of work experience involving care of others, or research assistant expereince.

 

I would advise and highly recomend doing conversion course, if you like psychology, you will enjoy it and it will equip you with knowledge and skills ( remember psychology is a science so you need course on research design and statisitcs) You would really struggle in an MA without some instruction in these ( in the unlikely event you were accepted without them). And considering its almost nigh on impossible to get anwaywhere in psychology without a 2.1, you could be setting yourself up for failure and a waste of time if you jump straight into a masters (tbh, i'm not 100% sure you would get on without conversion course). having said that there are one or two accredited MA( that sort of double as conversion courses) which require few credits, but you will be thrown into advanced stats and research desing, and most struggle with stats at first.

 

If you find MA/conversion you are interested in, why not email course director for requirements and accreditation details

 

Good Luck!

Edited December 11, 2013 by elise123

[Goenka]

Thank you so much for your insights. I indeed would go for the conversion course because ill need to get my basics right before anything else. My concerns about this was just the double masters(conversion and then masters in the specialized field) that for a conversion course for international students it costs about 10,000 pounds minimum. It will be very difficult for me to directly for the second one without working for a while and the conversion course would not get me a job anywhere,