Transitions…how do these feel in Social Work Training

This month’s podcast focuses on transitions in social work training—especially that big shift from university into placement, and the equally challenging move from one placement to the next. Both Amber and Lucy describe how intense and overwhelming those early weeks can feel. Amber shared that stepping into adult services felt like “learning a new language” and that the first few weeks were “a little bit overwhelming” as she tried to make sense of new terminology and expectations. Lucy echoed this, explaining that the pace change and assessed nature of placement felt “quite overwhelming” and very different from her base team experience. In the episode, we explore how confidence often dips during these transitions, why that’s completely normal, and how students manage the uncertainty, self‑doubt, and emotional impact of working with real people and real situations. We also talk about the gradual process of settling into a new team, building relationships, and finding your place, as well as the small strategies that help—like connecting with colleagues, asking questions, and taking time to decompress. At its heart, this month’s theme is about reassuring listeners that they don’t need to have everything figured out. Transitions are messy, human, and full of growth, and confidence is something that builds slowly through showing up, learning, reflecting, and being kind to yourself along the way.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi everyone and welcome back to Surviving Social Work Training. I'm Donna, and as always, I'm really glad you're here with me. Before we get into today's episode, I just wanted to take a minute for a really quick check-in. If you can, just pause for a moment wherever you are, whether you're walking, driving, or you're sat with a couple like me. You don't need to do anything complicated. Just take a second, slow things down slightly and ask yourself, where am I right now in my training? Am I still at uni thinking about placement? Am I already on placement, trying to find my feet? Or am I looking back and realizing I've come further than I thought? Then think about how that feels to you. Be honest with yourself. Are you feeling confident, nervous, a bit overwhelmed, maybe a bit of everything? Whatever that is, that's okay. There isn't a right way to feel at this stage. Then just have a quick think about this. What's something that you've already got through that felt difficult at the time? It doesn't have to be anything big, but chances are there'll be something that once felt really challenging that you've now moved past. Finally, just remind yourself I don't need to know everything right now. In fact, you never will. I'm allowed to learn as I go, and it's okay to take this one step at a time. Right. With that in mind, let's get into today's episode. So today we're talking about that big moment in your journey: the transition from being at uni to stepping into placement and all the challenges that can come with that. There's something about this transition that can really knock your confidence. And I see it all the time with the students I work with. At uni, you might have reached a point where you're feeling quite comfortable. You've got a routine, you understand what's being asked of you, you know your cohort, you know your lecturers, and you're starting to feel like you get social work, at least in theory. Then placement starts, and it can almost feel like you've gone backwards. Suddenly you're questioning yourself more, you're second-guessing what you say, you might find yourself sitting in meetings thinking, I don't really know what's happening here, or everyone else sounds so confident. Why don't I feel like that? And I just want to pause here for a moment because that feeling, that dip in confidence is just a normal part of the process. It doesn't mean you're not capable, it doesn't mean you're not cut out for social work, it means you're stepping into something real. This is the point where everything you've been learning starts to come alive, and that can feel messy, uncertain, uncomfortable, and quite often a bit overwhelming. Another thing that often comes up is the pressure that you students, you guys out there, and I was just the same, the pressure that you put on yourself. There can be this feeling of needing to prove yourself straight away, needing to prove yourself amongst your cohort, wanting your team to see you as capable, wanting to get things right, wanting to show that you deserve to be there. And what can happen with that is you start to become really, really hard on yourself, very self-critical. You notice every small mistake, every moment where you didn't speak up, every time you think I could have done that better. Here's something I really want you to hold on to. You are not on placement to be perfect, you're on placement to learn. If anyone tells you there is a perfect social worker, they are a downright liar. A perfect social worker doesn't exist. We are all human beings and we're all learning all the time. Nobody is perfect, nobody knows all the answers, so don't put that expectation on yourself. Also, remember the people you're working with are not expecting you to come in fully formed, they're expecting you to grow, to develop, and to make sense of things over time. And actually, the most valuable learning comes from the moments that don't go perfectly. If you're in a situation and you come out and you kick yourself, the learning you're going to gain from that is something that you're going to take into future situations. Even if you have to go back, re-ask that question or revisit that person in order to get the responses you need, that's not a bad thing. That just means that you're learning and you're developing as you go. I also hear a lot from students about feeling that they don't feel that they quite fit in the team they're in at first. It's the same wherever you go. I'm sure when you first went into your uni classes, you probably felt very similarly. But we forget that feeling quite quickly as we start to kind of find our feet and know where we sit. And it can take time to find your place within any given situation to build those relationships and to feel comfortable speaking up. All the time you're learning new systems, new language, jargon, which I hate, new expectations, and at the same time trying to figure out where you sit within all of that. And on top of that, you've got the pressure of thinking, I'm being assessed. So doing all that takes time, it really does. And there isn't a moment when suddenly everything clicks in overnight, it's really gradual. You'll start to recognize and remember names, you'll understand more in the conversations that you're hearing in the office. You'll feel a bit more confident asking questions, and you likely start to trust your own judgment. And then one day, without even realizing it, you'll handle something that a few weeks ago would have completely overwhelmed you. And that's progress. Another really important thing to consider is the emotional side of placement. You're now working with real people, real families, real situations, and they're real emotions, and that can stay with you. You might go home thinking about the conversations you've had or things you've witnessed, and you might feel unsure about how you go about processing that. And again, that's completely normal. Social work is very emotional, it's just the nature of the work. Part of learning is figuring out how to reflect on that, how to use your supervision to do that, and how to look after yourself alongside the work that you're doing. And that emotional side can show up again when you move from one placement to the next. Even if you've already completed one placement, starting somewhere new can bring up fresh worries, particularly as nine times out of ten students are going from a team, say in adult services to a team in children's services. So you're going to be negotiating different operating systems. You'll likely be negotiating different legislation, different client group, it's very, very different. You might be thinking, what if this team works completely differently? What if I don't settle in as quickly this time? Or what if the confidence I built in my last placement doesn't carry over? Those worries are all really understandable. Each placement has its own culture, pace, expectations, and ways of working. So it can feel like you're having to prove yourself all over again. You're not starting from nothing, you're bringing everything you learned from the last placement with you, even the bits that felt difficult at the time. So if you're in that space right now, feeling unsure, maybe doubting yourself a bit, wondering if you're doing okay. I just want to reassure you that you're not behind, you're not failing, you're learning exactly what you need to learn at this stage. And it might not feel like progress on a day-to-day basis, but I promise you it's happening. Sometimes it's in the questions you ask, sometimes it's in the noticing things you didn't notice before, sometimes it's in the just showing up even when it feels hard. And that absolutely counts. And I think it's really important that you don't just hear that from me because everyone's experience of transitions is slightly different. So for this episode, I'm really pleased to be joined by two students who are going through this right now and have kindly agreed to share their experiences. So I'm really pleased to be joined today by two students or apprentices who've kindly agreed to share their experiences with me. Um, thank you both so much for being here. Um start with can you please identify yourselves? Let me know where you are in your training and what team you're currently placed in. If we start with Amber.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Hello, um, yeah, so I'm Amber. I um am doing a um two-year apprenticeship and I'm doing a master's. Um I've just finished my first year uh and I have been working in a older people and physical disability team.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

And my name is Lucy. Um I am doing a three-year degree apprenticeship in social work, and I'm now in my second year, and I'm in my first placement, and my placement is an adult social services team working with adults with learning disabilities.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

Brilliant. So if I go to Amber first, how did you feel your first few weeks on placement? And obviously, I'm aware that you're both just you've, Amber, you've obviously come to the end of your first placement, and Lucy, you're still in your first placement. How did that feel in that first few weeks, Amber?

SPEAKER_01 10:35

Uh so for me it was like um I've not worked uh with adults much before, but my background is working with children. So going into working with adults was like it was a bit like learning a new language, to be honest, because there was you know, there's terms that people use that you just I just had to write quite a lot down to be honest, because I was like, I don't know what you mean, I don't understand that. I had to write my own little um kind of dictionary of social care terms, so it was a little bit overwhelming that first kind of three weeks at times, and also at some times I felt quite chilled because it was like, oh well, I can just relax and kind of take things in as I go as well.

SPEAKER_03 11:19

And Lucy.

SPEAKER_02 11:21

So um similarly to Amber, I also have a background working with children and found that um starting in an adult team was quite a step change for me. Um I would say though, having got to the first placement stage in my training, I did feel uh that that was an exciting new thing and it was a new step and a milestone in the training, and it was an opportunity for me to do something that was out of my normal area and out of my comfort zone, I suppose. Um and I felt very much the new person in the team, and there was lots and lots of induction training and lots of shadowing of different colleagues, which was really interesting.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

So something that's come up when I've spoken to a lot of students is around that jump from when you're uh a student in uni and you're starting your studies, and I appreciate it's different for it's going to be different for you both because Lucy, you all have been in a base team for a period of time. Whereas I think Amber, you go straight from the uni straight out to placement if I've understood it correctly.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

Is that correct? Yeah, so yes, so that jump then from I'm interested to know what that jump felt like for um you, Amber, from the perspective of coming into uni and then going out on placement, and then after that, from Lucy, in the terms of having kind of being settled within that kind of base team environment, and then that jump into a different placement. I know you've touched on that briefly, but I know that from other students that that can feel quite intense, that there can be quite a lot of pressure around that.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Yeah, I think it it did feel quite intense. I think especially so the first um I think it's three or three or four months is um you're in you're in classes kind of every day, and you make these really lovely relationships with your your classmates, and you know, you're learning you're learning all this stuff together, and then all of a sudden you're kind of going out by yourself into a team where you don't yet know anybody. Um, but I I do find it really helpful to have, so we have like a um WhatsApp group, so we're able to kind of like catch up with each other on there, which is really, really nice. And I think it made everyone feel a bit less isolated because it can feel a little bit isolated just to begin with, where you kind of find your feet in a new team.

SPEAKER_02 14:01

Uh so Lucy, a difference for me is that on the degree apprenticeship, as you say, Donna, we have our base team. So for the first 15 months of my apprenticeship, um, I was in a children's services team where I was doing a lot of co-working and it was not an assessed period of time in that team. So I was very much within the team, absorbing the information and learning through osmosis and learning through experience. Um, and at the same time had regular days at university, which was typically one day a week, and then sometimes blocks of a week or two weeks at a time. So it was quite um paced. Whereas in the second year of my apprenticeship, starting my first placement, um, it was a step change and intense is the word used, Donna. I would agree with that, because you don't then have the same frequent days at university. It's more like full-time interplacement. Um, there's lots and lots of information to learn, and I felt that I wanted to get up to speed as quickly as I could. So it was trying to understand the bigger picture as well as the individual processes and how it fits together and how it's applied when you're working directly with people. Um, so it has been intense and it has been a a change in culture and a change in pace.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

So with that being said, what's the biggest difference that you that you've both noticed with you yourself, Amber, from that leap from uni to placement and with you your leap from your base team to a placement, Lucy?

SPEAKER_01 16:11

I think the the biggest change is I think when you're at uni, you know, you've got this this timetable and you just need to get to where you need to go, um, and then also do you know, do your um your reading and a bit of the uni worker um around it. But then when you go into your base team, you know, you have you might have an induction plan, but quite often the teams kind of you you are responsible for your your own managing your own time, which I think can feel a little bit overwhelming at first as well, because you you think, oh, I need to really need to prove myself. Um, and trying to figure out actually what you do day by day, I think can be a little bit of a challenge. Um, what I found really helpful was um just meeting with everybody in the team and kind of um asking them lots of questions and then kind of using that to kind of snowball actually, like what okay, what do I need to learn? Like writing it down, like going finding like policies that that were helpful based on kind of like what people have been been talking about, that kind of learning learning the language of the team, really.

SPEAKER_02 17:19

I would say adding on to what Amber's already said, something that has been unique to placement for me and is very different to uni is um really focusing on linking together the theory and the practice. Whereas when I was in my base team and at university, I did have both those elements and I was making links between them, but in placement that's become much more of a focus and much more of a regular practice through supervision.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

Yeah, I found that quite helpful as well, actually, like having the reflective supervision sessions and being able to talk about places that you're working on and thinking about how the theories apply to those those people that you're supporting that's really helpful.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

Back when you both started, so for you, Amber, coming from uni and for you, Lucy, coming from your place, was there anything that you felt initially was a real sort of challenge or that you felt really knocked your confidence in those early days?

SPEAKER_03 18:35

Lucy?

SPEAKER_02 18:36

Yeah, uh so for me, I mean, it was just the switch into adult services plus the pace change, the fact that it was assessed and there was a lot of structure with the regular supervision and the kind of intensity of the learning. Um, I would say that found felt to me quite uh overwhelming experience. Um and I would say for me it was very important to stay organized and be proactive about my learning in order to manage that um kind of feel that I had a sense of control in my learning as well, and to be proactive about things that I wanted to get out of the placement, like for example, shadowing another adults team, and to um organise myself to make those opportunities throughout the placement.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

Amber? Yeah, I I think for me the big the biggest challenge was kind of just not necessarily knowing what I was doing, kind of feeling quite confident in what I was doing in my role before, and then kind of going into another another team and not feeling that confident. That was quite difficult for me. Um and I think I had to just remind myself that I'm there as a student, as an apprentice, and no one's going to expect me to to know everything. Um, and just having some time kind of at the end of the day, uh what I found really helpful was actually like writing down, especially to begin with, like what have I learned today, especially when you feel like you don't know anything, because you can sometimes feel like that when you when you're learning a lot. Um, but I found actually just each time, and each each at the end of each day, just writing down what I have learnt has really, really helped, helped me. And yeah, it definitely helped manage those stress levels in the first kind of four weeks, feeling like uh, yeah, I don't know anything.

SPEAKER_00 20:48

But but both what you've both said, I think that a lot of students will relate to because I think when you're in that kind of unknown place and you're feeling unsure, it's you know you might have your cohort around you, but they're not in the same team as you, they've not having that same experience as you, they haven't got the same practice educator or on-site supervisor as you, they've likely not got the same cases as you, and you know, much as you can have that kind of camaraderie, camaraderie with your cohort, ultimately, you know, you are there and you are there as the lone student, and you're you know, you're doing that thing there and then, you know, so you're having to kind of manage that for yourself in that moment, aren't you? Um I I guess what I would look at, because I always tend to look at kind of from a well-being perspective, and you've covered this a little bit, Amber, by saying about you know, you write down the things you've learned, but is there anything that you've found that really helps you to sort of manage that uncertainty when you're feeling it and that feeling of being unsure? Is there any kind of techniques that you've that you know work particularly well for you?

unknown 21:59

I can

SPEAKER_02 22:00

Say for me, I was fortunate in that the team that I am in for my placement is a team where they frequently have students coming through. So it's very much a team where there is a culture of learning and the colleagues in that team have already got a good understanding of the placement experience for a student and how to support them in that. So I think my colleagues in the team have been a big part of helping me to feel settled in the team, helping me to feel welcome. And really importantly, I feel like I'm within an approachable team where I can ask questions and I feel um reassured that I'm not going to be met with any kind of incredulity at the questions that I ask. You know, that it does feel like no question is a silly question, and that's been really helpful for me in my settling and feeling comfortable in the placement.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

Amber? Yeah, it's similar to Lucy, really. Actually, just getting to know kind of my colleagues in the team on an individual basis was really, really helpful from the beginning because then I knew who I could go to if I if I had questions. I also found it really helpful to uh find like the other students and apprentices because quite a lot of the teams all have another student or apprentice. Um, and just having a chat with them, kind of speaking with them about what they've learned if they've been there for a little bit longer than you, they might have some words of advice or they might have um some resources that they can share with you and that kind of yeah, can just help you along the way, um, but also just just having someone that you can just chat to about yeah, any of the questions or any any problems that you've encountered?

SPEAKER_00 24:03

Pretty helpful. And I was gonna ask, were there any particular kind of strategies or support that made a big difference to you in those early days? And that doesn't mean it has to be from your practice educator or your team. Just it could even be something that you've kind of put together yourself. But was there anything in particular that you found really helpful?

SPEAKER_01 24:29

For me, it was messaging each member of the team separately and just introducing myself and finding a time to kind of go out with them separately. I just found like sit sitting in the car and just having a chat and just getting getting to know them was a good strategy for me. Um I also I don't know, I think some people do this, but not everybody does. But like scheduling in my my lunchtime, it's really really important to me, just having that time to just um kind of decompress and take a little walk around um the office or or if I'm working from home, go to the go to the field and just connect with um with nature and just feel a little less a little less stressed and overwhelmed. Yeah, that's helpful.

SPEAKER_02 25:15

I would say that um I also made sure to try to reach out to different members of the team and the parallel health team as well to arrange uh shadowing visits or conversations to find out about their role. But I would say for me, just being present in the office and working alongside colleagues um was a big part of um the kind of initial start of those relationships. Just being present in the office and um being able to join in with the conversations or um ask questions just informally was helpful for me. Um and then Amber, similarly to you, um I would say I always make sure that I've got things outside of work that I enjoy doing kind of in the evenings, or I like to make sure that I've got things booked in in the future that I'm kind of working towards outside of work as well, so that I just maintain that balance, even though work might be intense and um my focus might be there during the day, just to make sure that I've got other things going on alongside that.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

I mean, what I would say as well is the reality of it is when you're doing your apprenticeship or or or your student on placement, I think unless somebody is actually doing that training with you, they don't appreciate that you're effectively having to work a full-time job as well as studying a course at the same time and providing all the paperwork for your placement, as well as providing all the paperwork that's required from uni at the same time. And that's a real juggling act. That's a lot to expect from someone. And I do always think that going through social work training is very transformative in the fact of you know, you have to learn how to not just juggle knives, but juggle knives that are on fire while somebody's shooting at you from behind trees. You know, it's it's it's it's it is incredibly intense, and you know, you do have to really be able to negotiate things and navigate things very, very quickly. Um, but at the same time, we obviously need to have in the back of our mind all these theories and concepts and models to support us in how we approach things and the interventions that we make. And I would often say that sometimes it's the smaller things that we do, not only with other people but with ourselves, that actually mean the most. Um if you were to look back now and and you were looking back, and perhaps you were the person advising, say Amby, you said you gained advice from other people who'd been through the process. If you were asked to sort of give some advice to somebody who was now starting the process and now going out on a placement, what would that advice be?

SPEAKER_01 28:26

I think it would be similar to kind of what Lucy said, go into the office if you can, especially if if a team are often there, they might be there maybe like one or two days a week, they might have set days. So just try and find out when that is and just go in and make yourself visible, listen to what people are saying and what people are talking about, try and insert yourself a little bit into the conversations, um, just be really curious about what people are doing, and yeah, as much as you can connect with the other people in your team because they will have so much incredible knowledge that you um unless you talk to them, you just won't find it out. Um and another point I would say it's really helpful to just try and be as organized as possible with things like if you can pack your lunch before, but just kind of reduces your stress, like on you know, in the morning when you're getting ready for work, just trying to trying to be a bit organized so that when you get to work, you kind of your mind is calmer and you can focus on yeah, on your learning.

SPEAKER_03 29:32

Lucy?

SPEAKER_02 29:35

I would say that the well two pieces of advice really. One is that time goes extremely fast. I remember thinking at the start of placement that it is a whole summer and it felt like it was stretching ahead of me. But placement is so busy and so full on that before you know it, the end is just on the horizon and it's come round so quickly. So I would say always be thinking about uh and reviewing really what do you want to get out of this placement? Because it is your learning experience. And see can you be proactive and work towards achieving those things and keep those things in mind that you want to experience in the placement? And the other thing I would say is make the most of the supervision because it is a really amazing uh journey and tool for your professional and personal development. Well, that's been my experience. Um, and I find that I can get more out of supervision if I spend time before supervision or between supervisions thinking what would it be useful for me to talk about, or how am I going to use this supervision?

SPEAKER_00 31:02

Yeah. And one last thing before I let you ladies get on with the rest of your day is is there anything that your team that you're going to could have possibly given you, or is there any information that would have helped you before you'd started placement? So with a particular team? And I'm and I'm asking this question selfishly because as a practice educator and having students join the team, if when I'm doing my initial meetings with students, if there was a particular thing that I could provide to students that would be helpful to ease that transition for them, I'd be really interested.

SPEAKER_03 31:42

Any ideas?

SPEAKER_01 31:45

I was gonna say an adult social care dictionary, but I actually found one on the system. Someone has actually spent time to make one. So that was really helpful. But I wish someone had pinpoint, yeah, kind of pointed out where it was.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

I was just thinking for from my perspective, um I think it would have been great for me if I could have got a bit of a head start on finding my feet on the online social care system. And maybe a way to do that would have been to have some numbers of different people's records just to have a look at examples of uh assessments or case notes or things like that just to get a bit of a sense of um how those records are put together and what what the level of detail is and maybe some examples of the kind of key processes within a team.

SPEAKER_01 32:52

Yeah. I I agree with that as well. Actually, that would have been really helpful for me. Yeah, to have a few examples of like what a good assessment and what a good review looks like. Um, because the first ones I had written, I just felt like I was kind of winging it a little bit, and I've improved as I've gone along, but it would have been nice to see some good examples. So I would know what what managers wanted to see.

SPEAKER_00 33:20

So that's that's really good advice, and that's advice that I'll take on board for students that I have in the future that I'll make sure that that forms part of the induction pack going forwards. Um, well, thank you both so much for being so honest. Um, I know that the people listening will have found that really helpful because I think it's always really helpful when you establish that you're not alone in feeling the way you do, particularly around something like transitioning from Teams. Um I'll wish you all the best, Amber, with your next placement, which will obviously be starting quite shortly, won't it? In is it September your next placement will be starting? Yeah, in October.

SPEAKER_01 34:01

So I've got um a chunk back at yeah, a chunk back at uni and then um yeah, back on yeah, my my second placement.

SPEAKER_00 34:09

So yeah. And and Lucy, for yourself, you'll be you'll be in your current placement until September, and then and then what happens from there for you? Well, the same as Amber.

SPEAKER_02 34:20

I also have uh block back at uni and then I'm back in my base team um between October and March. And then out for your second substantive placement. That's right, yeah. Then it will be my final placement, which will be in children's services.

SPEAKER_00 34:39

And that will be the same for you too, Amber? Will you be going to children's services for final placement?

SPEAKER_01 34:45

Yeah, yeah, I'll be going to children's services. So we do one in one in adults and one in one in children's.

SPEAKER_00 34:51

Well, can I wish you both all the best with your future social work career? Um, if there's ever anything I can help you with, feel free to give me a shout. But for now, I'd like to thank you both very much. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 35:02

Thanks, thanks, Donna.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

Thank you. So, listening to the experiences of Amber and Lucy, what really stands out is that there is no right way to feel when you start placement. Some people feel excited, others feel overwhelmed, but most people feel a mix of both. But the common thread is that it's a process. You don't arrive on placement confidence, you build your confidence through being there, through trying, through reflecting, asking questions, and sometimes getting things wrong and learning from it. If you take anything at all away from this episode, let it be this. You don't have to have it all figured out, you just have to keep showing up, keep being curious, keep being open to learning, keep being kind to yourself. Because at this stage, it's not about being the finished product, it's about becoming. So if today felt hard or you're doubting yourself a little bit, take a breath, remind yourself why you started, and keep going. I can guarantee you're doing much better than you think you are. Thank you so much for listening. And as always, go make yourself a cup of tea, take a breath, and I'll see you next time. Bye.