LEARNING IN TRANSITION: WORKPLACE LEARNING FOR NEWLY QUALIFIED SOCIAL WORKERS

Careers involve a number of transitions from one role or activity to another [1] and one of these transitions is particularly learning intense, namely the move from professional education into early professional employment. There are two broad perspectives for viewing this transition. The first is that the learning acquired through professional education prepares the individual for employment. The second is that professional education can only teach general information which must be applied and developed in the workplace [2]. This transition can be seen, not as a moment in time, but rather as a prolonged adjustment with multiple phases [3] which build towards cohesion or fragmentation [4]. Using semi-structured interviews with newly qualified social workers in Ireland, this study examines how social workers experience and manage the learning gap between their professional education and training course at university and the demands they encounter on entry into the social work workplace. It explores the factors that promote effective learning in the workplace setting for this group and how newly qualified social workers build on their education to fill in the learning gaps that practice presents. As the industry demand for qualified social workers increases and agencies come under pressure to recruit workers who are ready to hit the road running, this paper asks whether possible changes to the university curriculum are warranted and a new university/industry partnership required.