With increasing awareness of child welfare and child protection in Hong Kong, the public expects more professional social work services to be made available to primary school students and pre-primary age children. This one-year part-time certificate programme offers holistic training designed through the lens of social work as a profession to provide training in specialisation to practicing Registered Social Workers in Hong Kong who are/will be working with children. It is also a step forward in the development of specialisation in the social work field.
This programme will train up social workers with a specialty in working with children and their families. The programme equips students with the knowledge and skills required to provide quality social work services to children (aged 0-12) and their families. The characteristics and needs of service users could vary to a great extent in different social work service fields. Continuing professional development in a specialisation will enable social workers to develop expertise in particular areas in the long run. Pursuing a specialty helps social workers better plan for their career development and also enables them to provide better service to users.
In this programme, an ecological–constructionist framework will be stressed in understanding children within different sociocultural contexts, including family, school, organization and environment, while intervention will mainly be based on child- and family-centred practice.