Abstract
Practice education has always been a core component of social work education and provides social work students with opportunities to “learn to practice social work by delivering social work services in agency and community settings” (Bogo, 2006). The purpose of practice education is broadly to enable students to learn to integrate theory and practice, and to develop the knowledge, skills and values necessary for professional practice. One of the issues in transferring such theory into practice is “how to overcome the assumed ‘abstract’ nature of theory in relation to the assumed ‘real’ nature of practice” (Evans, Guile, Harris & Allan, 2010:245), and it is therefore essential to provide students with opportunities to engage in social work processes in the real world. Historically social work agencies acted as the universities’ partners in the practice education of social work students – they provided placement sites and access to social work practice and their supervisors guided and mentored social work students.
Highlights
Practice education has always been a core component of social work education and provides social work students with opportunities to “learn to practice social work by delivering social work services in agency and community settings” (Bogo, 2006)
The portfolios provide details of student activities and include proposals for the different programmes, weekly reports with supervisor feedback, sessional and final evaluations conducted, records of meetings and other activities, and most importantly, evidence of the achievement of student learning outcomes. Over the years these evaluations have demonstrated that University of KwaZulu-Natal: Community Outreach and Research (UKZN):CORE has provided students with opportunities to meet all the relevant exit-level outcomes
Students have been positive about their experience of being placed at UKZN:CORE
Summary
Practice education has always been a core component of social work education and provides social work students with opportunities to “learn to practice social work by delivering social work services in agency and community settings” (Bogo, 2006). At a time when very few organisations were able to provide community work experience, UNCP provided social work students attached to student units with opportunities for community work practice. This organisation, called University of KwaZulu-Natal: Community Outreach and Research (UKZN:CORE), continues to provide vital support to the School of Social Work in providing practice education experiences in a climate in which finding suitable placements has become increasingly difficult. As suggested by Tilling (2009), UKZN:CORE adopts a broader definition of practice learning whereby the identified learning outcomes and the associated knowledge, skills and values may be acquired and demonstrated through a broader and more imaginative curriculum outside conventional placements
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