Lunchtime Seminar - Post-qualifying Education: The Facilitating and Restraining Factors that Influence Decisions on Whether to Engage with Post Qualifying Assessed Programmes.

Post qualifying education alongside continued professional development in social work has many benefits. Ongoing learning and development can promote reflective practice, increase practitioner confidence and improve service delivery. However recent challenges in social work practice including recruiting and retaining staff, coupled with increasingly complex caseloads and year on year budget reductions, can all impact on employing organisations capacity to support staff development beyond required in-service training.

This study, presented by Diane McGarvey, Social Services Learning and Development Officer, Northern Health and Social Care Trust, reports on a practice evaluation employing focus groups and individual interviews to elicit social work practitioners’ views on factors that impact their decision-making about engaging in post qualifying (PQ) education and training, and what supports when they do.  It conversely identifies factors that discouraged or created barriers to their participation.  PQ training ranged from none beyond that mandated by their organisation, to extensive.

The presentation provides recommendations for social work education, including the learning outcomes of the study and identifies the barriers to post-qualifying training.

All of the Social Care Council Lunchtime Seminars are free and open to anyone to take part in. Just click on the button below to reserve your place.