Think Ahead

Most of us know someone with mental health problems. You can make a difference.

At Think Ahead, we want to see a society where everyone with mental health problems can flourish. That won’t happen unless people can improve their social circumstances – because life issues like relationships, living arrangements, and employment have profound effects on mental wellbeing.

To drive positive change, we created the Think Ahead programme: a fast-track route into mental health social work for talented graduates and career-changers. It has quickly become one of the country’s most competitive graduate schemes, with over 28 applications for each place on the programme.

We are looking for exceptional individuals who have the potential to become excellent mental health social workers, and go on to lead change in their fields. You don’t need any prior experience of social work, but you will need to demonstrate that you have the attributes necessary to excel on the Think Ahead programme and beyond. Take our quiz to see if you could be a mental health social worker.

Think Ahead aims for diversity within each of our cohorts, as we think it’s important that the social work workforce represents the people it serves. We therefore want to attract more applicants from underrepresented groups particularly those that identify as Male and/or from Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority background; we will be providing coaching sessions to these underrepresented groups that progress to the application stage.