Explore a world of career opportunities with your psychology qualification, like Amanda and Anne

Posted on 9 October 2025 • Career planning, Graduate opportunities, Jobs, internships and work experience

Amanda moved from working as a Learning Support Assistant to become a Remote Children’s Wellbeing Practitioner. Anne was an administrator in a drug and alcohol service and is now a Counselling Psychologist in Training. Both studied an OU Psychology degree and worked closer to their goals via sideways moves as they studied. Explore the wide range of different fields and discover hidden career options in your Psychology and counselling career guides.

Get clarity, build experience and turn theory into practice

Cut through the confusion with the case studies in the P&C career guides and learn useful tips from OU alumni of psychology qualifications. Discover expert insights from practitioners and universities offering postgraduate courses. Learn how to get relevant work experience towards psychology-related roles. Like Amanda and Anne, you can build your experience flexibly whilst you study, observing or applying concepts you are learning to real-life situations. Many psychology students find this helps boost motivation to study and achieve their goals.

Know your options – there’s more to psychology careers than ‘psychologist’

The best-known psychology career options are probably professional (chartered) psychologists. These require several years of additional postgraduate training to specialise in areas such as:

• clinical psychology
• forensic psychology
• educational psychology
• occupational psychology.

However, studying psychology develops skills and knowledge sought by employers in many other sectors too and can be applied to a wide range of careers and opportunities. OU alumni with psychology qualifications also work in:

• education
• health and social services
• human resources
• IT and related technologies
• marketing and advertising
• management
• Charities
• local government and the civil service
• finance
• counselling and specialist therapies (with additional professional qualifications)
• advice and guidance work.

Build your own, personalised action plan and track your progress.

The Next steps section of the P&C career guides gives you a template to produce your action plan, including building your work experience and resources to help you reflect on where you are in your career planning. Think about what you are interested in and passionate about, as that will help you to decide on your next steps.

Use the psychology edition of FutureYOU to support your learning and your career planning by tracking your personal development as you grow and build confidence throughout your studies. FutureYou is mapped to the content and activities in your studies, highlighting where and how you are developing a variety of skills employers value, with space for you to add in your own reflections from other aspects of your life, including any volunteering or work experience you gain during your journey.

 

Catrin Davies is an OU Careers and Employability Consultant specialising in supporting Psychology students. Catrin helps students figure out their goals and build their confidence and skills to achieve them through one-to-one careers consultations. Explore the rest of the Career Stories page for more articles from the Careers and Employability Services team.

 

Siobhan Flint is an OU Careers and Employability Consultant specialising in supporting Psychology students.  Siobhan develops and delivers a range of careers and employability resources as well as supporting academics to embed employability in the curriculum.