| CODE | SWP3311 | |||||||||
| TITLE | Placement A | |||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 03 - Years 2, 3, 4 in Modular Undergraduate Course | |||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 6 | |||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 12 | |||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Social Policy and Social Work | |||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This is the first assessable placement to be undertaken by the students. It consists of 300 hours worked over 12 weeks, and is held over the first semester of the 3rd year. During the placement period the student will be expected to spend three full days in succession at the host agency (usually – Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) and two days at university per week. The purpose of Placement A: This study-unit is intended to provide students with opportunities to develop skills, values, knowledge and competence in a specified range of key components of social work practice, and to integrate this with learning across all prior and concurrent study units undertaken on their course. This placement will focus on those aspects of the social work process that centre on the Assessment phase of social work practice – i.e. communication, engagement, assessment and planning. Students will be expected to bear responsibility for 7 to 10 cases. Legitimate work on placement would include: • direct practice with service users and carers; • associated meetings; • supervision; • preparation for supervision; • attendance at recall days at the university; • preparation of placement-related written work; • preparation of assessable work. Study Unit Aims: Placement A aims to provide students with an opportunity to: 1. Develop an understanding of the range of roles undertaken by social workers, and build their capacity to perform such roles; 2. Develop their capacity for ethical and effective social work through direct work with service users; 3. Clarify and use common principles, processes and concepts applicable across a range of roles and settings; 4. Integrate and transfer learning for practice. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge and Understanding: By the end of the study unit, the student will be able to: 1. Describe and explain the meaning of a warm, empathic helping relationship; 2. Describe and identify effective and ineffective verbal and written communication; 3. Complete a professional assessment of service users; 4. Propose a plan of action based on the professional assessment carried out of service users' needs. 2. Skills: By the end of the study unit, the student will be able to: 1. Assess and explain the impact of psychosocial, political, cultural, racial and economic systems on the lives of people; 2. Demonstrate the application of theory to practice, in his/her writing and in his/her discussion of casework; 3. Engage in the process of assessment and formulate plans based on such assessment; 4. Engage in a process of self-reflection especially during supervision sessions as well as in his/her writing; 5. Describe and use various methods of social work intervention with which they are familiar, with community and institutional systems, small groups, families and individuals; 6. Conduct culturally sensitive interviews, give and receive information and communicate clearly, both verbally and in writing; 7. Appreciate and use the human resource and service network to facilitate appropriate referrals and understand policy and practice implications; 8. Write clearly, using the tool of Process Recording as well as Agency records; 9. Describe and analyse the impact of inequality, discrimination and social exclusion in work with people in a range of contexts and problem situations; 10. Demonstrate and apply ethical principles in all aspects of social work practice, where relevant working purposefully with tensions and conflicts in the application of such principles to real situations; 11. Take significant responsibility for their own continuing learning and development through reading and research. |
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| RULES/CONDITIONS | Before TAKING THIS UNIT YOU MUST PASS SWP2550 AND PASS SWP3511 AND PASS SWP2641 | |||||||||
| ADDITIONAL NOTES | Please note that a pass in the Competencies component is obligatory for an overall pass mark to be awarded. For the students’ practice to be eligible for assessment, they must attain competence in five core areas assessed through the Competencies component. These are: 1. Ability to build relationships with people. 2. Ability to communicate clearly and effectively. 3. Ability to assess situations. 4. Ability to apply social work values in practice. 5. Ability to use supervision for professional and personal growth. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Placement | |||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Maria Mangion |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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