SOCIAL WORK COMPETENCIES AT MASTERS LEVEL:
Lessons Learned from Social Work Students
of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)
Muhamad Fadhil Nurdin, Azlinda Azman, Syarif MuhidinAbstract
The development and building of social work competencies among graduate students is also imperative in the social work practice. Field practice at the Masters’ level is greatly needed in order to allow students to be able to apply knowledge, values, ethics and skills that they have learned theoretically into real life situations. Both the social work educators and the students must be actively involved in the supervision process, which can enhance the student competencies in dealing with various target groups. This paper will address some of the USM’s best practices in providing field practicum to the social work students currently pursuing their Masters degree in social work. It will also highlight some of the advantages experienced by the students themselves when undergoing or experiencing field practice. Students’ and alumni perception and expectations on the pertinent issues, challenges as well as recommendations on the improvement of the field practice will also be discussed and presented in greater detail.
Key words: Master Social Work; MSW practicum; Social work competency
Introduction
The purpose of the social work profession is to promote human and community wellbeing. As known, the social work practicum is a fundamental aspect of social work education and practice that provides students with the opportunity to apply the theoretical foundations learned in class into the real situational context. In fact, practicum is considered to be a central aspect of social work education (Maidment, 2000) and has even been described as the “signature pedagogy” of the profession (Council of Social Work Education, 2008, p. 8). Practicum or evidence-based practice was first introduced into social work education in the 1990s, although earlier models for integrating research and practice did exist.
and research experiences, where students can integrate and acquire the needed knowledge, values, and skills for any form of social work practice. A range of teaching approaches and methods of assessment of student learning are used in these domains of the curriculum, all with the aim of preparing social work students to be ready and able to enter the field of practice or in other words the ability in providing the direct practices to the various group.
In any helping professions, it is recognized that knowledge for practice is continuously evolving and changing. Hence a lifelong learning to ensure continuing competency is necessary. A range of educational approaches have been developed to address this needs, which includes the on-going supervision, agency-based educational workshops, and continuing educational courses.
Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) was the only university in the country offering Bachelor Degrees in Social Work (BSW), since 1975. Not until the 1990s, many other Malaysian higher learning institutions begin to follow the foots-teps of USM in offering social work degree programmes. Currently, USM is still the only institutions that offers Masters in Social Work coursework beginning 2006 in Malaysia. Being the first, the programme took the responsibility in preparing social work students to become a competent social work practitioners. This is possible through its rigorous practicum training that provides students the opportunity to apply their theoretical knowledge into practice.
Competencies Required for Students
Undergoing for Practicum Training
Students undergoing practicum in any settings will be engaged in both direct practice and indirect service provision. All social workers, whether engaged in direct or indirect practice are expected to display basic competencies. The Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards of the Council on Social Work Education (2008) clerly outlines the central competencies that are considered essential for the development of the social work student. These include the application of the social work values and ethics; the use of critical thinking for decision-making; the acceptance and understanding of diversity in practice; the advancement of social justice; the participation in the development of policies that impact social service provision; and the engagement, assessment and intervention with individuals, families, groups as well as communities.
The Importance of Practicum
Students were asked about the view on the importance of the practicum. Presented below are the some of the students’ views or opinions with regards to the importance of practicum:
“Field practicum is very important component in social work practice because it provided an opportunity for students to integrate classroom education with experiential learning.”
“Practicum is compulsory to every student in order to fulfill requirement in order to obtain Master’s Degree in social work. Generally, practicum tries to give initial working experience to students and to prepare them with working environment.”
“Honestly, I feel the practicum is very useful, significant, and powerful learning experience in my formal social work education in USM. What I am trying to say is during the practicum, the concepts, principles, and theories discussed in the classroom come to life. The most interesting part is I have worked with the real clients and I have the opportunity to apply the knowledge, value, skills and intervention techniques that I previously learned and exercise in the classroom role playing and simulations.”
From the above statements, it clearly regarded that practicum will allow students to apply their knowledge and understanding regarding social work in the real world situations. Social workers will get the opportunity to practice and apply all the knowledge, values and skills in real working environment. In order to be effective and efficient social workers, classroom education without experiential learning are not sufficient to build and produce excellent social work in the field. This, field practicum is regarded as the essence in the training of any social workers.
Lack of Qualified Field Instructors
The students also gave their opinions about the role of the field instructors. Presented below are some of the pertinent opinions:
“Based on my field work experience, the lack of highly qualified field instructors has been universally identified as the most critical problem. Field instructors are often experienced workers, but they do not have much knowledge of social work theories. Surprisingly even some of them do not have background in social work but they work in the social work field. When the field instructor does not have knowledge in social work it will definitely give some negative impact to the practicum students. Based on my observation and experience, most of the social work practicum students are asked to do office work such as typing letters and sorting the files.”
suggest that the field instructor must have at least a Bachelor in Social Work from an accredited institution with a reputation for professional competence. The field instructor must have an understanding of and support for social work education, and the field instructors must have enthusiasm for experimental education, as well as interest in working with students of diverse backgrounds.”
“There are some challenge while I was doing my practicum such as there is no specific social work unit or staff with social experience. They also do not have any idea what is social work specific task. I found some difficulty to practice what I have learnt in classroom. They also gave task to help them in administration work because of the lack of staff and most of the staff do not have background in social work.
“There are also conflict between the roles of the counselors and social workers. In my opinion as a social work student, there is a clear differences orientation between this two professions. Counselors problem solving approach is solely through providing services through direct counseling. While social workers are more to tapping into various systems, developmental/life span approach, and applying the knowledge, values and skills which had been taught thoroughly.. There were some differences in curriculum too, but I do see that there were more similarities than differences. In this, the combination of the counselors and social worker perhaps will gain positive output.”
“On the other hand, the minimum knowledge on what is social work does come into issues during the practicum training. Most of the instructor or the administrative staff have zero knowledge on social work. Perhaps, with the introduction of the social work act inMalaysia in the future will make enhance people’s understanding about social work.
The lack of qualified field instructors has been the main problems in every social work settings globally. In Malaysia, there have been drastic movements to manage these situations not only by the authorities but also by the NGO’s. The upcoming Social Worker’s Act is one of the blue prints and can be considered as the best alternative for the time being. The main purposes of this act is to prepare and provide train social workers in the various field.
Expectations
Students were also asked about their expectation after completing their practicum training. Reported below are some of the statements given:
orphanage. In that way, I will contribute something in social work especially social work practice with orphans.”
“Through the three months compulsory practicum of MSW programme, I have had the pleasure of completing my final year practicum at a school in Penang. I knew that I was interested in community development, but I didn’t have a solid understanding of what this huge field term truly meant. I was hoping that this practicum would provide me some answers to it. In addition, I was determined to complete my final practicum at Penang Free School (PFS) not only because of the school’s exceptional work, but also because I knew that I could learn more about school social work, which would prepare me for my role as a social worker”.
“As a MSW’s student, my expectation is to get some working experience to prepare myself while working after finish my study. During practicum, I have been exposed with direct and indirect working systems, communication skills, job scope, roles, services provided by Wisma Anak Yatim as well as their working culture. After I graduated from the masters’ programme I hope I will be able to apply all the social work knowledge, value and skill in my daily life. In addition, I hope in the future, social work programme in Malaysia is comparable with the social work programme at the international level.”
The students emphasizes that field practicum do help students to gain some experience and the most importantly, it offer students the opportunity to apply and react properly in handling real case work. Students will have the chance to collect any kind of data or knowledge in completing their dissertation requirement.
Fieldwork is a supervised learning experience. The fieldwork experience allow the linking of skills and knowledge acquired in the classroom with direct practice is very critical in becoming a competent social workers. Students will have better understanding regarding how the real world works and enable them to react accordingly to the situations, conflict or problems. Having the real life experiences will help to build or mold students to be able to serve any clientele more effectively.
Experiences
The students also reported on their experiences when undergoing practicum training. Presented below are some of their experiences:
confidence in providing social work services to diverse client groups with a wide variety of needs and concern.”
“The practicum experience is very meaningful for me because upon completion, I was able to engage the client systems appropriately and used professional assessment and planning skills, utilizing applicable theory, assessment instruments and methods to design appropriate intervention or service plans to achieve realistic goals within the limit of client system, worker and agency capability. In addition, I was able to demonstrate my interpersonal skills and appropriate techniques to implement intervention or service plans to achieve realistic goals with individuals, families, small groups, organizations and communities.”
“This practicum experience has solidified my goal of being a school social worker. Even though the definition of “school social worker” will take on several meanings throughout my social work career, I am committed to finding ways to improve the communities through community development initiatives. Finally, I believe that social work is one of the hardest professions and therefore it is essential that workers are equipped with the skills and knowledge they need in order to carry out the job effectively. Skills in areas such as problem-solving, empowering individuals, encouraging independence, promoting a better quality of life for individuals and protecting them from harm are crucial.”
Field experience in social work is designed to give students first-hand experience working in some area of applied social work. In recent years, students have received supervised experiences in hospitals, community welfare centers, and day treatment facilities, schools, correctional facilities, and other agencies. Students have worked with a wide variety of clients. In addition, field experience can help students discern future career goals. For some people, field experience confirms their interest and passion in pursuing a career in the helping professions. For others, field experience helps them realize that such a career does not fit their personality or disposition. Both realizations are equally valuable to students' professional development.
Finally, field experience can assist in students' personal development too. Working in the helping professions can foster greater humility, compassion, empathy, and respect for the inherent rights and dignity of others. At the same time, field experience can allow students to recognize personal strengths and weaknesses, increase professionalism, and foster a sense of identity.
According to Allen (1976), designing work placements and supporting teachers guidelines and techniques can be applied flexibly by the universities in various context. Each teaching method engages students in different ways, thus in order to create and maintain a supportive atmosphere for learning, students are encouraged to develop self-confidence and confident in experimenting and creatively reflect and employ different theories in their work and study. Utilization of technical field work skills is an important function in social work education and is critical to encourage innovative and constructive knowledge leading to intellectual self-sufficiency to face the challenges of contemporary complex. Besides, respecting the student’s personal experience is crucial to the development of professional practice in helping the students to recognize and adopt an individualized theory or concept. However, social work competencies at master’s level as a lifelong learning for example requires not only social work skills, but also knowledge and application of theories in various contexts.
Thus, it is very important to learn about the social work practices including the knowledge, skills and values of the community within which field practicum takes place. For instance, supervisors is important to guide students and help orient the student to the agency context in which they work. A clear definition of students’ roles is also important because so that they can benefit fully from the educational opportunity to provide appropriate service to both clients and agencies. On the other hand, faculty liaisons can assist everyone’s needs and an opportunity to integrate the classroom training with ‘real world’ experiences.
Hence, a fruitful social work practicum able to shape students in becoming a professional social worker. In reality, resources are limited (included personnel, time and money) in the context of developing countries, universities may consider the use of online communication between field supervisors and individual field instructors, as well as group supervision in order to support for better professional development (Ghipiu & Maghiar, 2011).
CONCLUSION
References
Allen, D. (1976). Extending the practicum: Problems in integrating theory and practice. Canadian Journal of Education, 1(3), 43-51.
Council on Social Work Education. (2001). Educational policy and accreditation standards.
Council on Social Work Education. (2008). Educational policy and accreditation standards.
Retrieved from http://www.cswe.org/File.aspx?id=13780.
Ghitiu, M. & Maghiar, A. (2011). Field instructors on key issues in social work
education: A comparative approach. Social Work Review/Revista de Asistenta Sociala, 4, 73-84.
Maidment, J. (2000). Methods used to teach social work students in the field: A research report from New Zealand. Social Work Education, 19(2), 145-154.