We’ve been quiet on the Voices & Visions blog updates recently while we’ve been working away on developing our new resource to support social work student placements in third sector organisations (TSOs).
The document is now in the creative hands of our Iriss designer and we’ll soon be ready to launch it!
We’d love to see people in person to meet with us and connect with each other around the new resource for a morning of discussion, presentations and practice sharing on April 29th in Glasgow at Social Hub 10.00-12.30 (arrival from 0930 to get a coffee and settle in). The programme for the morning is still being finalised, but we plan to feature inputs from universities about how they support social work students, with opportunities to ask questions and discuss together what works well in hosting a placement, and collaborating to make the most of the time a student worker is with a third sector organisation - for everyone! There will also be time to feed in and shape our plans for the next stage of Iriss work on this aspect of social work education and learning.
Who and what is the resource for?
It’s for everyone involved in a third sector social work placement. The resource is based on the inputs we’ve heard from social workers and team members from many different types of third sector organisations, students, recently qualified social workers, practice educators and university placement co-ordinators and social work tutors.
The resource focuses on the practicalities of planning, preparing and then hosting a student placement - for all key people involved (student, university, host organisation, practice educator). Drawing on the reflections and experiences of people recently or currently involved in placements, and their top tips for helping things to go well, we hope it will be particularly useful and practical if you’re new to the world of third sector placements, and offer some fresh perspectives if you’ve been involved with placements for a while. There’s also a super practical case study from a third sector organisation that goes into more detail about the planning, support and creative approaches they take to hosting student social workers.
“placement is the best and safest way of students experiencing the real world.” - Practice Educator
We’re grateful for everyone’s inputs and conversations you’ve had with us over the last few months and look forward to seeing you for coffee, practice sharing and lunch on April 29th!
If you can’t come to Glasgow for the in-person event, please use the event registration form to indicate your interest in an online session on April 30th 12-1pm. We will run an online session if we know people are interested in participating!
