Nimal
"The course was interesting, challenging, demanding and thought-provoking. It stretched me, expanded my thinking and made me realise my capabilities not just professionally but personally."
Main details
"After a turbulent youth I decided to study social work and graduated 12 years ago. I specialised in youth justice and managed a restorative justice project at a busy inner London youth offending team for 10 years.
I realised early on that I had a flair for group work and became interested in educating a new generation of social workers. I completed the Practice Teacher Award in 2005 and since then have supervised about 10 students one to one. I chose Goldsmiths as it has a good academic reputation; as a young person I never dreamed I would be a student at Goldsmiths. I really valued the support and encouragement I received from the tutors.
The course was interesting, challenging, demanding and thought-provoking. It stretched me, expanded my thinking and made me realise my capabilities not just professionally but personally. The highlight of my time at Goldsmiths has to be getting my results on my research. On a busy stressful day I received an email letting me know I had aced my research. All the sleepless nights, blood, sweat and tears were worth it. I was walking around with the biggest grin and nothing could cloud the deep sense of achievement I felt.
Goldsmiths is organised, consistent, reliable and treated us like professionals. This was so beneficial, especially as we were juggling full time social work posts, families, the course and all of the other things life throws at us. Goldsmiths is such a great community to be part of. I know from my own experience as a manager that employers are aware of the calibre of students graduating from Goldsmiths.
As a result of the course, I've recently been appointed as Practice Development Manager at Southwark Council. I now work with newly qualified social workers and students on practice placement. I have the opportunity to apply the findings from the research I conducted on the emotional impact of social work and vicarious trauma. I have also been invited to teach on a module of the Practice Education course at Goldsmiths for those who are supervising newly qualified social workers."
