What can I do with a psychology degree?

What careers are there with a psychology degree?

Because our course is accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS), you will be eligible for the Graduate Basis for Chartered membership (GBC) after graduation. If you want to become a Chartered Psychologist, then obtaining GBC is the first step as this is a requirement for many postgraduate programmes.

Postgraduate study is available in a number of areas, enabling you to take the next step towards the following psychology career paths:

• Educational psychologist - Tackle challenges concerning children and young people in educational and early years settings, helping them to overcome problems that can hinder their chance of learning.
• Forensic psychologist - Apply psychological theory to assess and treat prisoners and offenders, as well as support victims of crime and other professionals in the judical and penal systems. 
• Health psychologist - Use knowledge of psychology and health to understand physical illness and promote general well-being.
• Occupational psychologist - Apply the science of psychology to the workplace, using psychological theories and approaches to enhance the effectiveness of organisations and develop colleague performance, motivation and wellbeing.
• Clinical psychologist - Reduce psychological distress from a wide range of mental and physical health problems, including addiction, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, learning difficulties and relationship issues to improve psychological well-being.
• Counselling psychologist - Working collaboratively with clients and people across a diverse range of disciplines, use psychological theory and research in therapeutic work to help those with a range of difficult life issues and/or mental health conditions to empower their recovery and alleviate their distress.
• Sport and exercise psychologist - Help athletes prepare psychologically for the demands of training and competitions.

What can I do after a degree in psychology?

At Leeds Beckett, you can choose to study a PhD in Psychology.

Of course, not all psychology graduates want to become a psychologist and go on to work in a different field. Our psychology graduates have used their skills to enter careers in a wide range of industries, including:

• Social and health services
• Industry and government agencies
• The media
• Computing and information technology,
• Teaching
• Marketing
• Personnel and human resource management
• Training on graduate schemes

What kind of skills will I gain?

Psychology graduates are highly valued by employers in both the public and private sectors for the range of skills they develop whilst completing their degree. Some of the skills you will gain are:

• Written and verbal communication – through writing reports, creating and delivering presentations and group discussions.
• Handling data and statistics – through both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis and analysing data from research studies.
• Critical thinking - through group work in seminars, reflective report writing and exploring psychological theories.
• Team work – through working in groups for presentation assignments and in seminar activities.
• Organisation and planning – planning group work, research studies and your own workload.
• IT skills – from using Microsoft Office programmes for assessments, e-tools to locate appropriate research literature, using specialist software and the collection and analysis of data.

Will I gain any practical experience on the course?

In the second year, all students take part in a of minimum 2 weeks work experience. After completion, you will reflect back on the work-related experience as part of the module assessment for Individual Differences and Work Behaviour. The reflection completed in the assessment highlights real life situations where you have used your skills, which can then be added to your CV or used as examples at interviews.