Social-work students are to receive bursaries worth about £3,000 a year and have their tuition fees paid.

Health minister Jacqui Smith said: "We want to see more people entering the social-work profession and to encourage people into social-work training."

The non-means-tested bursary will be paid to social-work students who are not funded by their employers. The rates will be at least £3,000 a year, plus tuition fees for those students who do not receive them from local authorities or employers.

Students aged over 25 on postgraduate courses already get a bursary and the Department of Heath said this week that this would continue, although an element of means-testing will be introduced. The postgraduate route accounts for about a fifth of those going into social work.

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* Liz Doel has just qualified as a social worker after having completed a masters at Birmingham University. She was not eligible for a bursary as she was under 25.

Her father is head of social work at the University of Central England. He said:"The new bursaries should help this department at UCE to recruit students to our new three-year degree, and we particularly welcome the fact that they will be paid to existing students as well."

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Ms Doel works at the Fireside Centre, Birmingham. "I had to work full time while completing my dissertation as I couldn't afford not to," she said. "My starting salary was just £16,200."