Name: Lil Nickolds
Course: BA (Hons) Social Work (Degree Apprenticeship)

The course has been a journey, where we've been able to fill up our learning gaps, and put all that practice and that knowledge together into one place, where we can actually develop our skills and our learning.

What has been the main progress for me is that I've grown as a person, and I've been more reflective in my practice. It's about those Why questions I start to ask myself--Why are we doing this? Why have I done this? I start thinking about that process a little bit more, so that I can think about the person that I'm working with, my own values and input into it. And I'm generally stepping back a bit more and reflecting more.

Juggling the course with work, I'll have to set priorities and boundaries so that I can get through. It's not an easy course being a full-time session--I'm in class for one day a week and will be doing the coursework for the rest of the days.

What can be helpful is that I am keeping up with the reflective logs we do after our day at the University, where I think about the teaching that we've had that day, and how we put that into practice. I get to think about wider issues in my community, in society and write about it.