Career prospects
The programme has been designed to respond to innovations in the training structure for applied psychologists.
It also aims to meet a need within Scotland to enhance the workforce in psychological health care, especially within an early intervention framework for children and young people.
Successful completion of the MSc in Applied Psychology for Children and Young People will allow graduates to apply for Clinical Associate in Applied Psychology (Children and Young People) posts.
Graduates from this programme will have a wide range of competences that will enable them to work in a number of different settings both within the NHS and in the Voluntary Sector. Graduates will be competent to work clinically with children, young people and their families in a variety of mental health and primary care settings.
Roles which previous graduates are fulfilling include:
- Clinical Associate
- Child and Adolescent Therapists
- Primary Mental Health Worker
- Mental Health Worker in Schools
- Community Mental Health Worker
Within the NHS further career development is available and encouraged through continuing professional development and progression, according to the competences acquired, as outlined in Agenda for Change.
Trainees are not automatically offered employment following graduation. Although we expect there to be adequate employment opportunities for graduates, these will be applied for in the same manner as any other position.
Graduates are not required to work in their NHS placement areas following graduation and can apply for positions in any area of the country.
Professional Registration
We are currently pursuing professional registration with the Health Professions Council (HPC) for graduates of the MSc in Applied Psychology for Children and young People as ‘Practitioner Psychologists’.
As part of the interim arrangements in the process of registration of the training programme we agreed with the HPC to maintain a voluntary register of all graduates of the MSc in Applied Psychology. All graduates of this programme who work within the Health Service or related areas are required to maintain their registration.
The register is maintained by an independent governance group which will allow individuals access to the register if they have graduated from an approved MSc programme.
The governance group will also be able to process any complaints of malpractice or fitness to practice against its registrants and remove individuals from the register as a consequence of an independent investigation.
This article was published on Sep 10, 2012