In-Service Training for Social Agency Practice

An urgent shortage of professionally trained personnel for social agencies is a chronic problem in North America. To meet this situation the Social Welfare Branch of the Department of Health and Welfare in British Columbia began, in 1943, a programme of in-service training designed to build an efficient staff and at the same time to encourage all workers to attain professional status. This book is based on the author's fifteen years of experience with this highly successful programme. It provides a practical outline of the methods and content of a programme for teaching non-professional workers within the social organization, and analyses thoroughly the problems and questions which arise. Throughout it reflects an awareness of the ethical nature of the work and services of the social agency and the importance of its ideals. Although this is a record of a particular experience, it is also a handbook for all other social agencies wishing to alleviate the desperate shortage of professional social workers by training their personnel on the job. The aims, methods, limitations, and actual content for an in-service training programme are given in such a way that they may be adapted, with modification, for application within social welfare organizations in a wide range of settings. The harassed agency executive and social work educator will welcome the combination of directly applicable details and guiding principles which is provided here.