Syeda Ali: BSc (Hons) Psychology: 2011-2014; MA Forensic Psychology 2014-2015; Social worker for Hammersmith and Fulham Council

“I enjoyed Psychology – Winchester is a smaller uni so I felt supported there. In my final year I had a supervisor who was amazing and super helpful. She was so supportive; she was my dissertation leader but we would chat about other things as well. Winchester is such a nice small community. In my Masters I was so comfortable in such a small class. I was going to study elsewhere but I chose to stay. It was a new course that year and it gave me a good grounding.”

Syeda Ali has gone from studying Psychology to training in Social Work. After graduating with a BSc (Hons) Psychology degree in 2014, Syeda stayed at Winchester to study a Masters in Forensic Psychology. However, she was always interested in becoming a social worker. After completing her Masters, Syeda spent some time researching a career in social work before training with the Frontline organisation.

Syeda now works as a newly qualified social worker for Hammersmith and Fulham Council but she had other jobs before getting into her dream career.

“I wanted to do social work but Winchester didn’t offer the MA so I continued with Forensic Psychology. It was hard as it is two years of work in one and was quite intense to go straight into that after my undergrad.”

“I did some volunteering throughout uni with Samaritans and then continued once I had finished my degree. Then I spent a couple of years working for the charity, Victim Support. I wasn’t able to work in high risk cases so I had to pass them on to social workers but I wanted to help those cases and those children.”

“I was looking into doing a Masters in social work somewhere and then I came across the Frontline programme. I had reservations as this area of work seemed stressful and has high rates of burnout, so I did some admin work for Hammersmith and Fulham local authority for two years helping social workers. I moved on to different teams, but I was encouraged by social workers I worked alongside to become one.”

“Eventually, I applied for Frontline. They can place you in any local authority, but I was lucky to be placed where I was already working. To complete the Frontline course, I spent five weeks at the University of Warwick with three hundred other participants who took part over the summer. We lived for social work, doing lecturers and exams all in five weeks. I qualified in October last year so I’m now newly qualified. This means I get more additional support and the complexity will build as my experience grows although the complexity of the work depends on the case.”

Syeda enjoyed studying both her undergrad and Masters degree at Winchester and reflects on how much support she received, particularly from her dissertation supervisor in her third year.

“I enjoyed Psychology – Winchester is a smaller uni so I felt supported there. In my final year I had a supervisor who was amazing and super helpful. She was so supportive; she was my dissertation leader but we would chat about other things as well. Winchester is such a nice small community. In my Masters I was so comfortable in such a small class. I was going to study elsewhere but I chose to stay. It was a new course that year and it gave me a good grounding.”

Syeda is happy in her role as a newly qualified social worker. However, in the future she is interested in working with children in authority care as this will give her the chance to build relationships.

“I’ll stay in social work. I currently work in child protection, but I would like to work more with looked-after children who are already in authority care. It means I will be able to build relationships for longer and that’s what I like in my line of work – making things better for families, be that practically or emotionally, that’s the main thing.”

Syeda has many happy memories from her time at Winchester, but her best memories are the times she spent with her friends on campus.

“My best memories are being in the Psychology department room, chilling with my friends or in the games room downstairs – we would all hang out in there; I didn’t take part in many societies at uni, the Islamic Students Network was introduced after I left university, it looks great and I wish that was there when I joined.”

“Graduation was also nice – the way it was set in the Cathedral. It was so lovely finishing university together. I’m still in contact with my friends; my closest friend from uni moved to Australia.”

Syeda credits her time at Winchester for giving her the chance to meet a wide variety of people that she could talk to and learn from.

“Winchester is removed from bigger cities. I met a lot of interesting people. You meet people with different points of view and all walks of life and it is really valuable. I met people that I could learn from and that made things more flexible.”

With two degrees under her belt and experience training in social work, Syeda has some great advice for students who are looking to make the next decision in their career.

“Enjoy your time at uni. You’ll never be given this opportunity again. Start looking for your next steps earlier whatever it is – volunteering programmes or graduate schemes. If I had known about Frontline at university I would have applied sooner. However, don’t be so hard on yourself because you’ll get where you need to be; take care of your mental health because you’ll never know when it could creep up on you and practise self-care in a way that works for you, especially now.”

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