TRAINING PEAKS AND PITFALLS.....CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

To whom this week's blog is addressed, I'm not sure. On reflection, definitely child and youth care workers who are either in learning   (learners), trainers/facilitators.or especially perhaps intending to become learners.Then possibly child and youth care worker training providers, child and youth care worker learning material developers.

 The Professional Board for Child and Youth Care Work (PBCYCW) and the South African Council for Social Service Professions (SACSSP) are mandated in terms of the SACSSP Act 110 of 1978 to accredit service providers and learning materials. This accreditation is designed to regulate, monitor and ensure the standard of provision of knowledge, content and practical is acceptable for the registration of social service practitioners....that, in Child and Youth Care, they are suitably qualified to give quality service to the children and young people in the system.

The accreditation of service providers depends on having/employing/using qualified child and youth care workers at the appropriate professional level to manage child and youth care educators, and it's service provision. Also to be part of the development of the learning materials, to be there and able to monitor trainers and facilitators, to internally assess and to moderate the assessments of child and youth care workers.

Child and Youth Care learning materials have to be submitted to the SACSSP before they can be used/ and/or distributed for the training of child and youth care workers.

A shift in the educational level for the Child and Youth Care qualification from level 4 to level 5 has brought about a situation in which the service providers have to make submissions to the PBCYCW and to SACSSP. There has been a submission influx. Important to know that the new level 5 qualification allows university entrance.

Some service providers develop there own learning materials, some buy ready made packages, some have been and will no doubt use what is called "generic"learning material available through the Health and Welfare Education and Training Authority (HWSETA). All must be accredited by SACSSP. All must measure up to meet the level 5 curriculum outcomes.

Quality Assurance is a mandated responsibility of the PBCYCW, the SACSSP as well as the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO).

You have the picture. Regulation and monitoring ensures quality education and training and exposes bogus service providers and sub- standard learning materials.

This is what must be. It gives child and youth care workers assurance of a quality accredited recognised qualification. It provides a set of cautions and a guide to avoid financial loss, the disappointment of not being eligible for registration and so, not being employable.

This is a short list of cautions ..a sort of checklist. Is the service provider a registered company, or a registered non- profit Organisation (NPO)? Is it accredited as a service provider with the SACSSP? Is its learning material approved by the PBCYCW and SACSSP? 

There's more to look out for. Are the facilitators qualified and registered with the SACSSP as child and youth care workers? Are they trained trainers? Do the internal assessors and moderators hold the required registration with the HWSETA? 

On completion the statement of competencies should not be delayed.  You can ask past learners about this.

Over the past while some service providers have slipped through the system. Now, more particularly as a new curriculum at level 5 has to go through the accreditation system, this should really not happen, but the cautions are real and need to be thoroughly checked out by learners.

At level 4, learners are talking of a number of disturbing training  experiences. Here are some of the comments: 

There have been instances of delayed or non- forthcoming result schedules. A group of child and youth care workers I know said that the facilitation was done mainly in the old "chalk and talk" style, or that the learning material was used as a textbook....... read it!   It was a complaint that the knowledge component was OK, but the link with real practice situations was thin. Workplace/practice experience examples were limited.

A PBCYCW  concern was instances of learning materials which draw primarily, not on Child and Youth Care literature, nor it's  discipline, nor its recognised  practice, but on other other fields like ECD, Health, Community Nursing, Home Care and Care-giving

Other of my own experience is that facilitators and the developers of learning material sometimes use spoken or written language in English at a level which could not be easily understood or may be misunderstood. Also, that learning materials are not always learner friendly. Also that learners are frequently not challenged to analyse or create. That often they don't get exposed to the full range of  cognitive learning exercise as in Bloom's Taxonomy. Internalisation, and the exploration of shades of grey - the possibles and probables, the nuances and richness of child and youth care work seem often to get lost or misty. In Child and Youth Care practice demands that levels of thinking get stretched. We have to know how to read between the lines.

I do have confidence that the new upgrade to level 5 and the new round of accreditations as well as the upgraded clear and relevant curriculum outcomes and quality assurance will change the landscape where it has to be changed.

Lastly and importantly. There are available, excellent service providers and learning materials with very carefully and trained facilitators and administrative back-up.

Look out for them. 

Ask around.

Be cautious and do your homework.