Background :
In June, 1992 the Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW) conducted a National Consultation on Continuing Education, in conjunction with its Delegate Assembly being held in Saint John, New Brunswick. The consultation used as its major reference point the documents produced by the continuing Education Project initiated in 1986, under joint sponsorship with the Canadian Association of Schools of Social Work.
The CASW Board has endorsed the recommendation of the National Consultation Report that it develops a specific plan to address the continuing education needs of Canadian social workers. This policy statement is the strarting point in the development of that plan.
Continuing Education - Definition :
For the purpose of this policy statement we are defining continuing education as: the lifelong process of engaging in activities to learn new knowledge and skills and deepen professional competency.
Preamble:
In describing continuing education as a “lifelong process” the CASW affirms its commitment to the principle of lifelong learning. We also believe in the importance of continuing education to ethical, well regulated and competent practice (see section 3.6 of the Code of Ethics, 1994).
Primary responsibility for engaging in continuing education rests with individual social workers. However, the ability of a social worker to engage in continuing education requires mutually shared responsibilities among the schools of social work, employers, employees, government and professionnal associations.
This policy is intented to provide a general framework within which provincial organizations may develop their by-laws related to mandatory continuing education. The policy is designed to be general enough in its guidelines to meet the needs of social workers in geographically isolated areas in a wide range of practice settings. However, it also is to be specific enough to ensure that the importance of periodically updating skills and knowledge is firmly recognized.
Policy Statement:
The CASW support mandatory continuing education for social workers and request its member organizations to establish the necessary policies and procedures to ensure this.
Guidelines:
The following guidelines are recommended for the consideration of provincial associations when designing and implementing their provincial continuing education by-laws.
1. Social workers, who are members of their respective provincial organizations, shall complete a minimum of 40 hours of continuing education activities per annum.
2. These activities shall include the following:
Group One:
A. Self-Directed Learning: This involves activities such as journal reading, the use of formalized instructional packages (reading, audio, video, etc.), the writing or research time that goes into preparing an article, presentation or piece of research.
B. Mentoring: A consultant-consultee form of learning which is formalized through the use of a learning contract.
C. In-Service Training: Clinical education provided by one’s employer that is not generalizable to other jobs and that is designed primarily to increase one’s effectiveness in carrying out the tasks involved in one’s job.
Group Two:
A. Courses: Generally 4 to 12 sessions designed to increase knowledge or skill in an area directly related to social work practice. They can be credit, non-credit, or degree courses.
- Conferences: Events of 1 to 5 days wherein a common theme is explored possibly through the use of different presenters discussing a variety of topics of relevance to social work practice. Generally the goal of a conference is to increase a professional’s knowledge of the thematic area.
- Workshops: Similar to conferences in duration and possible format but revolving around one topic. Workshops often focus on increasing skills in a particular area of social work practice.
- Seminars: Seminars are group activities designed to meet learning goals. They are potentially less didactic in nature than the preceding two activities and generally more informal. Given that informal groups such as journal clubs could fit under this category, the provincial organization should take measures to ensure that groups of this nature have written learning goals or terms of reference.
- Certificate Program: A planned sequence of course and/or workshops leading to a certificates which indicates completion or competence.
- In-Service Program: Courses, workshops, seminars, or conferences provided by one’s employer. These differ from in-service training in so far as knowledge gained from an in-service program is more transferable to one’s profession than specific to their job.
- Committee Work: Work related to Delegate Assembly, CASW Board and provincial organizations’ committee.
3. A maximum of 50 % of continuing education activities shall come from each group.
4. Appropriate provincial organizations may develop a system for monitoring adherence to this policy.
APPROVED BY CASW BOARD
MARCH 1994
