The supervision of undergraduate social work students on placement is fundamental to their development as 50% of the BSc (Hons) social work degree in the UK comprises practice learning, which is widely acknowledged as the signature pedagogy of the profession. In Northern Ireland practice learning opportunities are supervised by practice teachers. To ensure a consistent quality and supply of practice teachers a Master's programme offering approximately 35 places per year is delivered at Ulster University. The trainee practice teachers had to navigate working on the front line through the COVID 19 pandemic, post graduate study and the professional supervision and assessment of undergraduate social work students on placement. This article presents evidence from a small scale qualitative study evaluating the practice teaching programme conducted with 22 trainee practice teachers.Respondents were asked to complete a semi structured online survey. The evaluation sought their perceptions regarding the duality of their unique experience as a gatekeeper to the profession and student managing the unprecedented challenges of assessing the competence of social work students on placement. Several themes emerged including assessing competence, the student experience and support from the practice assessor. A further outcome was the creation of a Peer Learning Bubble Model.

This article is developed from a presentation given at the 12th International practice teaching conference in Oxford (2018). The authors share their experiences as academics and practice educators of using digital storytelling with social work students in Northern Ireland. Storytelling took place at two distinct points of the students’ learning journey before and after placement. Undergraduate social work students (n=40) in their first semester of year one teaching participated in classroom based digital storytelling with the first author. Placement students created digital stories at two key points during their placements, at the beginning (1st – 3rd week of placement) and at the end (16th – 18th week of placement).  Several themes emerged including; self-evaluation and reflection, producing and receiving feedback and team work. This collaborative article offers a basis for practice development and professional discussions across disciplines on the use of digital storytelling with students studying for a professional qualification.

Public perceptions, increased scrutiny and successive governments’ reshaping and attempting to define what is and what is not social work has eroded the progressive and radical force of the profession. This article explores how students’ perceive the profession and presents evidence from a small-scale study conducted in a Northern Ireland University with 37 undergraduate social work students and 25 postgraduate student social workers (training-as-practice educators) on their perceptions of the characteristics of a professional social worker. A quantitative research design was used, consisting of a face-to-face survey distributed to respondents following an input on the Place Model, (Clarke, 2016). Respondents also shared their perceptions in relation to Freidson’s (2001) three logics: professionalism, bureaucracy and the free market, with Ternary graphs and word clouds used as a novel way to present this data. Several themes emerged as important characteristics of social work professionals including reliability, accountability, ethics and appearance. At the other end of the scale, respondents identified unprofessional, de-personalised and cynical as the least aspirational qualities of the profession.

This article is developed from a presentation given at the 12th International practice teaching conference in Oxford (2018). The authors share their experiences as academics and practice educators of using digital storytelling with social work students in Northern Ireland. Storytelling took place at two distinct points of the students’ learning journey before and after placement. Undergraduate social work students (n=40) in their first semester of year one teaching participated in classroom based digital storytelling with the first author. Placement students created digital stories at two key points during their placements, at the beginning (first to third week of placement) and at the end (16th to 18th week of placement). Several themes emerged including; self-evaluation and reflection, producing and receiving feedback and team work. This collaborative article offers a basis for practice development and professional discussions across disciplines on the use of digital storytelling with students studying for a professional qualification.