Source: NorthTec
NorthTec’s Community and Social Services pathway has hosted a series of professional development workshops – Ō Tātou Moemoeā: Our Dreams – to bring together students, graduates and industry to learn and keep up-to-date with new developments and research in the Social Services field.
The next online session will held via Zoom on Wednesday 24th June at 10am – 12pm, and will feature Dr Sue Bradford exploring ‘The War on the Poor: A Te Tai Tokerau Perspective.’ She explains: “Some of the history of deliberate government policies and practice that underpin an inadequate, punitive welfare system and high levels of unemployment which have disproportionately impacted on the health and wellbeing of Māori and on the communities of Te Tai Tokerau more broadly.”
NorthTec Bachelor of Applied Social Work student, Peta Oppert, says the Ō Tātou Moemoeā: Our Dreams Hui is a liberation of the mind. She said: “Ō Tātou Moemoeā provides the illumination of past knowledge learnt in social work and brings it forward to complement and enhance new learning, and acknowledges the continuous contribution to the learning moving forward in social work.”
Led by Pathway Manager John Stansfield the series was developed after comments were made by what Stansfield calls the four strands of the field identifying a gap in the industry. The four strands consist of Bachelor of Applied Social Work students, the Social Work Local Advisory Committee, local practitioners, and fieldwork teachers and recent graduates in agencies within the field of Social Work.
After an increase in professional development hours for social workers, Northland practitioners recognised the lack of local opportunities for them to take advantage of.
This combined with current students requesting the chance to come together with other students at different points in their study pushed Stanfield to cultivate this series to provide an option to fill that gap.
The first of the series commenced in March this year, which featured former NorthTec Tutor Dr Paulé Rūwhiu discussing decolonisation of social work in education, held at NorthTec’s Te Puna o Mātauranga Marae.
In April, Ō Tātou Moemoeā moved to a digital platform with the restrictions put in place during the COVID-19 response. The Zoom session featured the chief executives from the Social Work Registration Board and the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Work, Sarah Clark and Lucy Stanford-Reed. Together they discussed registration, legislation, and the future of the social work workforce domestically.
The second digital session was held in May via Zoom and featured local activist Mike Smith on the relationship between climate change and social work.
These interactive sessions can be used for the Social Workers Registration Board (SWRB) professional development portfolio to maintain registration.
The series address SWRB core competencies and code of conduct as well as technical and practice issues. Current research informs the sessions and participants can expect to learn practical skills which will enhance their practice.
For those wanting to register their interest to the webinar on Wednesday June 24th 10am – 12pm, click here
