How long does it take to get a masters in the UK?

I have a bachelors in Social Work and will be coming to the UK for two years and am thinking about getting my graduate degree while i'm over there. In America we have something called advanced standing and if you qualify, based on your GPA you can get a masters in 1-1 1/2 years. I was wondering if any of you can tell me how long it takes to get your masters in social work in the UK?

The standard Master's degree course in the UK is 12 months full-time (i.e. September to September), although I've just done a quick search for MA courses in Social Work and they seem to be 2 years, as the students spend the equivalent of 1 year in the classroom and 1 year on a work placement rather than just 1 year in the classroom with no placement as in other MA courses.

Social work has a completely different structure in the UK compared to Canada / US / Australia / New Zealand.

The two year MA in Social Work programmes are degrees which only qualify one to practice who are not currently qualified and do not have the integrated structure to qualify those new to social work and provide advanced practice for already qualified social workers, as in Canada / US / Australia / New Zealand.

The advanced practice structure is quite different and is referred to as post qualifying training which is currently in flux. See http://www.gscc.org.uk/Training+and+learning/Continuing+your+training/Post-qualifying+training/ for an explanation of the English structure, for example.

Hope that helps.


ETA: http://www.socialworkcareers.co.uk/socialwork/start/qualifications.asp
http://www.prospects.ac.uk/cms/ShowPage/Home_page/Explore_types_of_jobs/Types_of_Job/p!eipaL?state=showocc&idno=88&pageno=1

For further explanation.