Psychology with a Professional Placement University of Reading

Overview

Key features

• This Psychology with a Professional Placement BSc degree from the University of Reading enables you to choose to take further training to become a professional psychologist. It incorporates a year-long placement that will enable you to develop valuable professional skills.
• The degree will give you a thorough grounding in key areas of psychology and allows you to choose modules that suit your specific interests, including a range of modules from other subjects. Should you wish to study abroad, you can spend a term of your final year at a partner institution.
• As a psychology student you can take advantage of research laboratories, neuroimaging facilities and resources for observing participant behaviour. Additionally, we have three in-house NHS clinics and the world-renowned Charlie Waller Institute for Evidence-Based Psychological Treatments on site.
• The first year of the course will introduce you to the concepts required for BPS qualification, including cognition, neuroscience, development, perception and research methods. You will then cover these and other subjects in far greater depth during the second year. In the final year of the degree you can develop your knowledge by exploring the areas that interest you most. 
• The vast majority of modules in this year are optional and are regularly revised in order to incorporate the latest developments in psychology. Recent modules have included subjects such as autistic spectrum conditions, behavioural economics, nutritional psychology, and emotion, empathy and their disorders.
• Throughout the course you will gain practical experience, and learn how to devise and run your own experiments. During the final year you will carry out an original piece of research on a topic of your choice. In the past these have included the effects of emotion on cognition, the effects of Huntingdon's Disease on quality of life, and using puppets to test children's IQ. You may even have the opportunity to present your work at conferences, and a number of past projects have won awards from the BPS and British Neuroscience Association.

Career opportunities:

• As a graduate of this course you will be qualified for further training to become a professional psychologist. Our BSc Psychology with Professional Placement course is accredited by the British Psychological Society and provides you with the Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership.
• This course will provide you with a range of transferable skills, including analytical qualitative abilities, writing experience, presentation skills and the ability to think and analyse scientifically.
• You could go on to work for organisations such as the NHS, civil services, schools or charities. Skills learned on the course also open up many doors within the private sector, in areas such as HR, recruitment, management consultancy, publicity, finance and journalism. Alternatively you can choose to further develop your skills by moving into research, teacher training or postgraduate studies.