Iriss was a partner in a conference organised for final year students and newly qualified social workers which was held on 26th February 2016 in Dundee. Entitled, Shaping our Future: Making a Difference, it focused on what it’s like to go from university into the world of work as a newly qualified social worker, and how to develop as an effective professional in a world that is ever changing.
Alyson Leslie, who spent many years undertaking inquiries and case reviews across the UK into child protection and mental health fatalities, gave an impressive keynote presentation on the subject of entering the world of social work as a newly qualified practitioner. One of her key points that stuck with me – ‘You don’t suddenly get smart’, pertaining to the continuous and experiential nature of learning in the profession. This chimes very much with what Iriss advocates in terms of building personal learning networks – growing your personal and professional connections through social media to continuously learn and find information and knowledge to improve practice. Here’s a video animation that explains the concept of Personal Learning Networks.
We were really pleased to have Jane Hart, an independent Workplace Learning Advisor, writer, speaker, and the Founder of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies (C4LPT), present a workshop at the event. The workshop – Imagining the future of workplace learning – focused on encouraging people to use social media, such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to grow a personal learning network.
We audio recorded Jane’s presentation, which gives a flavour of what it’s all about.
In the coming year, we plan to run an Personal Learning Network course for students in Scottish universities, to support them build their own Personal Learning Networks and to continue to use evidence in practice as they transition from university to the workplace.
A Storify of the Shaping our Future: Making a Difference conference is also available.