Working for Progress: Bria’s Story

Bria joined Progress as a Student Fostering Social Worker and has become an important member of the team. We recently caught up with her to see how she’s been getting on in her new role and hear more about what attracted her to a career in Social Care.

“My Mum and my Stepdad are both social workers, so entering this world was a natural thing for me to do. Whether it’s helping an individual, families, or groups of people, I feel it’s important to look for ways that can improve people’s lives.

I did Health and Social care at school and through different experiences had worked with children too. By the time, I got to University my focus was to gain a degree that would enable me to develop a career in Social Work.

I did a BA in Primary Education at Birmingham City University and then followed this up with an MA in Social Work at Wolverhampton University. While at Wolverhampton, I was lucky enough to do over a hundred hours of placement within a Social Work setting. This gave me great exposure, but I still felt something was missing. It was great learning about aspects of the sector but being able to get hands-on experience is what I needed and wanted.

I came across the Progress Student Fostering Social Worker role via the internet and applied straight away. Having got through the recruitment process, I was delighted when I was offered the job. I could finally get stuck in!

Day one was nerve-racking, but since then I have had so many great experiences. From supporting and supervising foster carers to working with children and young people, it has been an eye-opener to see what fostering is all about. I have worked closely with four foster carer couples who represent a cross-section of society. To see them thanking you for your help is really humbling.

My colleagues at Progress are very supportive. Having been able to shadow them, I feel I’m now more informed about social work rather than having to infer things. For example, I’ve learnt to be professional in the circumstances you would normally let emotions get the better of you. Things like this are only learnt “on the job”.

Working for Progress allows you to grow your social and people skills. I have met a lot of interesting people whose lives we are impacting positively. My academic studies did not cover fostering in any detail, but my positive experiences with Progress means I’m positively reassessing my career and look at fostering as a career path.”

If you too would like develop your skills and build a career in social care, please click here to apply for one of our roles today.