Centre for Practical Education
Strong and continuously nurtured partnerships with the World of Work mean more clarity for our students when making their career choices.
Strong and continuously nurtured partnerships with the World of Work mean more clarity for our students when making their career choices.
The Centre for Practical Education was established in 2002. It organizes the practical education for students that makes 30% of the curriculum. It has partnerships with local organizations (90 partners), and organizations abroad (50 partners in 40 countries).
The aim of the work of Practical Education is to (1) connect theoretical knowledge and practical experience, (2) enable to observe and experience the reality of social work, (3) update information from the field of social work, (4) foster good relations with future employers, and (5) help to identify with the profession.
The organization of the practical education (local and international work placements) is divided into certain steps:
1. Choosing organisation/destination (90 local/50 organizations in more than 40 countries: Azerbaijan, Georgia, India, Macedonia, Nepal, Mayotte, Ethiopia, Uganda, USA, France, Romania, Spain, Sri Lanka, Great Britain, Malta, Ecuador… )
2. Selection procedure - interviews (criteria: motivation, knowledge about the host country and organisation, previous experience, stress resistance, language skills, excellent study outcomes)
3. Preparation (includes - group seminars, intensive language courses, social-cultural courses, one week long survival training course, individual tutoring - learning objectives, communication with mentors at workplace)
4. Placement (includes - practical experience - learning by doing, achieving learning objectives, writing reports)
5. After placement (includes - evaluations, individual tutoring, group supervision, sharing with others - presentations)
Human resources:
- one director of the Centre
- one administrator
- tutors (internal and external)
- mentors (at each partner organizations)
Other resources:
- methodological guidelines
- other relevant resources
Factors:
- qualified, competent and motivated staff
- good communication system in place
- intensive communication with mentors
- public presentations of students' placements
The reasons are:
- active engagement of students with WoW
- active egnagement of WoW in the education
- frequent cases of employment of a student after work placement in the organization