Social Work Practice Placements 2021

UCD Student Social Work Placements January 2021

We are seeking Practice Teachers for our Professional Masters in Social Work Programme. This year we have in excess of 100 students across 1st and 2nd year, and so require over 100 placements for January 2021. Sincere thanks to those who have already responded and offered placements.

Our Practice Teachers are an essential part of the programme given that placements account for 50% of student time with us, and we very much value the role and expertise that Practice Teachers bring to student learning and professional development. This year we are especially indebted to our practice teachers and tutors who worked in very challenging circumstances and assisted our students in their learning while on placement. While we appreciate that those challenges will still remain in the year ahead, we nonetheless are appealing to all social work departments to consider taking a student on placement. Every support and guidance will be provided to demonstrate how placements can still meet and adhere to CORU’s Standards of Proficiency in the changed landscape we now live and work in. Ensuring that we have a sufficient number of practice teachers to provide placements is vital in order to enable completion of the programme so as to meet the needs of the social work workforce going forward.

We will be running the Practice Teacher Training programme in UCD on January 11^th and 12^th January 2021.  Last year’s workshop was very successful and was booked out very quickly. This year we are hoping to structure day 2 of the workshop around our shared learning and experiences of working in a pandemic and also providing a rich learning experience for our students while on placement. Completion of the 2-day workshop plus a further half day during your student's placement is essential for Practice Teaching training requirements. Priority will be given to those taking a student from UCD.

Practice teaching can be counted as part of continuous professional development and each practice teacher will also receive a small stipend. It is 750 euro gross and will be taxed at the full rate.

The placement dates for both 1st and 2nd years are January 18th – April 23rd, 2021 (14 weeks in total).

If you can offer a placement, please complete the Practice Teacher Register enclosed and return to (opens in a new window)socialworkplacements@ucd.ie. Any queries can also be directed to (opens in a new window)paula.slavin@ucd.ie / 087-4321435.

We thank you in advance for your support and look forward to working with many of you during the coming academic year.

Please see the following attachments:

(opens in a new window)2021 Practice Teacher Register

(opens in a new window)2021 Practice Teacher Workshop Flyer