CCWales: Council announces findings relating to social work students in Wales.
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Friday, 07, Sep 2007 12:00
Over thirty percent of students are sponsored by their employer, and there is high demand for the social work degree in Wales, with up to five applicants per place available. The barrier to increasing social work student numbers is the limited capacity of employers to provide additional practice learning opportunities. These are among the facts released next week by the Care Council for Wales in the publication ‘Social Work Qualifying Training – Annual Review of Trends 2006/2007’.
The proportion of social work students who speak Welsh has also increased, to eighteen percent. This is an important message given the concerns on this issue raised by the Association of Directors of Social Services in their report ‘Social Work in Wales: A Profession to Value’
Rhian Huws Williams, the Care Council for Wales’ Chief Executive said: “These figures are very encouraging as they demonstrate the interest in social work as a profession, showing that social work is viewed as a stimulating and worthwhile career.
“The number of employer-supported part time and distance students have increased, and what is particularly positive is the continued engagement of employers in committing significant funding to ensuring that we have a sufficient supply of social workers for the future. This builds on the continuing partnership forged between Local Authority employers and Higher Education Institutions in the planning and delivery of all eight Social Work Degree Programmes running in Wales”
She added: “It is also promising to see the proportion of Welsh speaking students moving closer to the population average of 21.7 percent - it is important that we raise the number of social workers able to work bilingually, this increases the flexibility of the workforce to be able to meet the needs of service users in their first language.”
For a copy of ‘Social Work Qualifying Training – Annual Review of Trends 2006/2007’ please contact the Care Council for Wales on 029 2078 0634 or email heledd.gwyndaf@ccwales.org.uk
Ends
For further information please contact Heledd Gwyndaf on
029 2078 0634 or email heledd.gwyndaf@ccwales.org.uk
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