Psychology with Counselling BSc (Hons)

Introduction:

• All of our courses offer work-like experience and we'll support you to develop your work experience or find a placement. You can also do a year-long sandwich placement in Year Three.
• Tailor your learning experience through optional modules and pathways. We offer a wide range of optional modules which are taught by experts in their field.
• Get involved in our amazing UK and overseas opportunities such as field trips and international summer schools. You could even study abroad for a year at a partner university.
• Your future employability and careers prospects are endless. In addition to working directly in Psychology or Counselling, you will also develop transferable skills in communication, critical evaluation, and data handling, which are highly sought in many areas.

Careers and employability

Core skills

Our Psychology with Counselling course is designed so that you can develop all the knowledge and skills that you'll need for your future career.

The diversity of our Psychology curriculum means that the course will enable you to develop a number of key transferrable skills that will be of use in a wide range of careers.

Some of these key skills include:

• Analytical skills and critical thinking: During the course you will need to critically appraise a number of different sources in order to construct an argument. You'll be fully supported to develop these skills through regular coursework and in-depth feedback on your work.
• Research and problem-solving skills: one of the best things about doing a psychology degree is conducting your own research! You will learn how to construct research questions and hypotheses, and then design research studies to answer these questions.
• Data-handling skills: We'll train you how to handle the data you collect from your research. This will involve both quantitative (numerical) and qualitative (text-based) data. You will learn to summarise and present both types of data which is a skill required in many careers. NTU Psychology is one of only a few universities in the UK that teaches statistics using an open-source package called 'R' which enables you to use your skills after your graduate. This is particularly relevant for data science careers for which R is a central skill.
• Written and oral communication skills: You will complete a wide range of assessments that will develop both your written and oral communication skills. You will communicate your ideas in writing through assessments such as portfolios, essays, research reports and blogs, and also present your work orally through podcasts and live presentations.

Highly sought after by employers, these skills will put you in a strong position in the graduate market. You may go on to use your degree as the first step to becoming a professional psychologist (for example clinical, forensic, occupational).

Excellent work experience opportunities

Our graduates go on to secure many varied roles, all of which will use their Psychology degrees in some way, for example in education, policing, marketing or human resources.

Work-like experience opportunities are an integral part of the course and will feature at all levels of study. You'll be given the opportunity to engage in a number of types of activity which are supported and assessed through core modules.

This activity includes:

• Employer challenges where you work with a business or charity, applying your psychological knowledge to a real-world scenario, presenting your findings to the organisation who can benefit from your work.
• Work experience opportunities where all students will be supported to gain 60 hours of real-world work experience that you will be asked to reflect upon as part of the course.
• Nottingham Trent Volunteering which allows you to get involved in one-day challenges, student-led projects and volunteer shop.
• Work insight events where you get the opportunity to meet an employer, hear about their organisation and ask questions. An example of this is the Festival of Psychology which we host in collaboration with the British Psychological Society.
• NTU SHIELD offers a number of short-term placements for students in their second year of study as well as opportunities for sandwich year placements. Launched in 2023, SHIELD is a mental health and wellbeing service for adolescents experiencing difficulties or challenges, and delivers guided self-help in partnership with local providers. Students will be trained in the provision of this support with support and supervision from University staff, with the experience gained supporting future career prospects in psychological practice.

If you have applied for the four-year sandwich course (C809), you will complete a year-long work placement. You will be supported by the university and course team to secure your placement.

Your career development or further study

With the British Psychological Society’s GBC secured (provided you graduate with a 2.2 honours degree), you will be eligible on graduation to pursue further postgraduate (Masters of Doctoral) training in psychology. You may wish to pursue an academic or research career in various areas of psychology by working as a research assistant, or by studying for a Masters or PhD.

Our postgraduate courses include:

• Applied Child Psychology
• Cyberpsychology
• Forensic Mental Health
• Forensic Psychology
• Occupational Psychology
• Psychology Research Methods
• Psychological Wellbeing and Health

Our Employability team

Careers and employability advice is available to all our undergraduate students and is provided by a team of subject specialists within the Department of Psychology and the University's Employability team.

Psychology is very proud of its graduates and their successes. We very much look forward to helping you graduate to your chosen career, be it in psychology or beyond.