How do we prepare social work students for the challenges they will meet at the workplace and what can we learn from each other in different countries? Short presentations from Australia, Northern Ireland, Finland and Sweden

Abstract

This presentation builds on findings from the EASSW Madrid Conference in June 2019 with presentations from Australia, England, Finland, Northern Ireland and Sweden. We will do a short presentation on comparative work from this project, followed by small group discussions and a concluding summary. <br/> The extent social-work education prepares students for the challenges they meet in the workplace has been discussed with concern about turnover and retention in child welfare (Healy, 2009). A common theme in studies where newly qualified social workers are followed from education to work transition, reports early career unpreparedness, especially their knowledge about how to meet with clients in acute crisis and how to handle demanding work situations, has been underlined (Turcotte, 2006). As working conditions for social workers in many countries are described as demanding, with high turnover rates, recruitment difficulties and where many social workers suffer from burnout, this topic requires attention. At the same time, knowledge about how and what social work students are taught about employer responsibilities, coping and resilience strategies, appears to be limited. <br/> This workshop allows a cross country and intercontinental comparison about how we currently address this critical pedagogy in the social-work curriculum. We know little about a common social work curriculum around ‘how to handle emotionally demanding situations’ or ‘how to recognize burnout and develop resilience habits’ and in general, ‘how to manage the demands of the job’ which seems to be a pedagogical gap. We invite participants to share their knowledge, experiences and reflections about the situation in their own country making it possible to learn from each other. To improve the preparedness of social workers’ and increase the possibility for them to stay at the workplace should translate to an increased quality of the support for service users. Primarily, if social worker turnover is improved, consistent relationship between workers and service recipients are maintained."