September/October 2009

Contents

• Editorial - Merle Allsopp
• Lessons from a Visit to the Dentist - Lesiba Molepo
• Integrative Inquiry as the Basis for Community-based Program Evaluation - Gerard Bellefeuille, Francis Ricks and Karen Ogen
• Understanding the Social Service Professions and Occupations Bill : Part One - Prinslean Mahery and Lucy Jamieson
• Parenting Skills : Synthesis on parenting skills
• In Service Training - Sandra Oosthuizen
• Human Rights are for Everyone - Marlise Richter
• The Alley Cats - Selma Watson
• Promoting Positive Alternatives - Joan van Niekerk
• FICE: Call for Papers
• Activities
• Examinations are Upon Us - Jackie Winfield

Editorial : A long and winding road but we’ve crossed a bridge and reached new territory!

By Merle Allsopp

The NACCW has been engaged in SAQA accredited training for over five years now.

Some child and youth care workers still mourn the loss of the ‘old’ training. What was wrong with BQCC? said a colleague to me recently. Well the BQCC was great in its day. Without it we would not have been able to progress as a field and may still be in the place where people were asking why we had to be trained at all! But times change and if we are to stay with the times, so must we change. So when the SAQA process appeared set to stay, the NACCW got on board. This had many implications and the process has certainly seemed like a long and winding road!

The training is firstly much longer, much more complex and much more expensive than our old training. It is all of these things, not because the NACCW has decided to make it so, but because as a field we now have to fit into nationally set standards if we are to have a qualification that is recognized and benchmarked with other qualifications. So it has been all the more disappointing and frustrating to people who began their training five years ago to find themselves in a situation where they still do not have their qualification, despite successfully completing all of their assessments!

But the long and winding road finally brought us to a bridge that we have crossed! The NACCW is thrilled to announce that the Health and Welfare Sector Education and Training Authority (HWSETA) has finally verified the assessments of 31 child and youth care workers (‘learners’ in their language) meaning that they will shortly officially acknowledge the achievement of these people and issue certificates as appropriate. This is, for the NACCW, and the field of child and youth care work, a real achievement. We have the first group of people in the country ready to graduate in the Further Education and Training Certificate: Child and Youth Care Work. We have moved into new territory!

Looking back on the long and winding road, you may well ask why it has been so trying a path. The answer lies in the way in which this national process of assessing training providers is undertaken. Very specific and very detailed requirements are set for training providers by the HWSETA. This is understandable and in order. However, what has made this such a difficult journey is the fact that these standards are not clearly articulated and communicated. Nowhere are the verification requirements of the HWSETA written down. So it is frequently the case that training providers are aiming towards unseen goalposts as they seek to have their learner assessments acknowledged by the HWSETA through the process of verification. It is also clear that different officials from the SETA have different expectations, so the way one official instructs a training provider to do things may be completely different to the way in which another official instructs one to present things. So it has indeed been a long road to get to this point when the first group of learner material has been accepted and verified!

But the good news is now we are here. We are in new territory. Surely if a batch of learners’ work is verified by the HWSETA, it stands to reason that if we follow the same path with others the next batch should be judged on the same criteria. So...hopefully we have crossed into new territory where learners can expect to receive their certificates and qualifications from the HWSETA in an efficient and timeous manner. It feels great to be in new territory!