Hello Andy,

Keep in mind that some courses (including mine) only take students who already have a job and experience in the substance misuse field, or they work in an field where they help/treat problem drug users (homelessness, mental health, etc.)so "placements" are not necessary.  We do all of our clinical supervision "in house" with experienced and practicing professional workers.

Take care,

Ira  

-----Original Message-----
From: Addiction Course Convenors [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of A.C.Ashenhurst
Sent: 25 November 2009 12:35
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [Addiction Course Convenors] core skills

Daren's point  is absolutely correct. However the placements issue, as with so much else, has complex practicalities, not least cost, time and the availability of suitably qualified work placement assessors. I agree it is a key factor in gaining credibility with stakeholders. For now, I'll put in an umbrella heading of 'assessed programmes' as a criterion we considered as important. The NTA Skills Consortium  members may well wish to comment on and add to this. Andy

-----Original Message-----
From: Addiction Course Convenors [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Daren Britt
Sent: 25 November 2009 12:21
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: core skills

Hi,

An interesting point here, certainly for course which seek to develop 'practitioners' then an assessed work placement is a valuable component.
It is a core aspect of training in other professions so why not ours?
Perhaps something we can be looking at as a group/association is how to support the development of relationships with community/service providers to provide placements. Maybe guidelines or examples of best practice. Where courses currently have placements maybe we can undertake some research to identify how this is experienced by the service providers? Our first joint venture with the SSA?

On a separate note I have started to point out to service providers and others who raise the issue of being 'too theoretical' that (certainly at
Brighton) we have a huge range of professional courses e.g. Social work, Nursing and midwifery, counselling, a medical school (with Sussex Uni), a School of Management, a School of Computing, Pharmacy, Wine studies etc etc... in fact if they wish to draw the (false) distinction between 'theoretical' and 'Practical' it is we who deliver a far wider range of practical courses than any of our FE colleagues. That is another one of our strengths. Perhaps we need to start being more proactive and integrating this into our presentation/narrative at the Skills Consortium (and elsewhere)"HE: the home of vocational education".

Best wishes    

Dr. Daren D Britt
(01273) 643548
Senior Lecturer in Substance Misuse
School of Applied Social Science
University of Brighton
Falmer
Brighton. BN1 9PH


-----Original Message-----
From: Addiction Course Convenors
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of A.C.Ashenhurst
Sent: 25 November 2009 09:36
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: core skills

I'll include assessed teaching programmes as a curriculum criterion.
Non-assessed teaching programmes were, understandably,  a key complaint from service providers - where QA cannot be determined. Andy

-----Original Message-----
From: Addiction Course Convenors
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Priest, Tony G. (Dr.)
Sent: 25 November 2009 09:27
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: core skills

I think Jim has a good point here.  Perhaps we should add something about assessed work placement to address possible perceptions that we are "too theoretical"?  Or would that run into the problem that not all courses have assessed work placements?

Are we up against the limits of what can be considered "Core" for all HE courses on this issue?

Regards,

Tony Priest
Course Director, Foundation Degree in Drug and Alcohol Counselling University of Leicester
01604-736231

Course Website:  www.le.ac.uk/lifelonglearning/counselling/courses
________________________________________
From: Addiction Course Convenors
[[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jim Jones [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 24 November 2009 20:25
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: core skills

I do fear that the NTA and commissioners do not really understand the nature of HE. The recent debate about graduate nurses (a fact since
1968) may be repeated regarding 'graduate' drug workers. Some explicit HE learning outcomes related to critical analysls, synthesis and relvant transferable skills in information handling would not go amiss.

Jim Jones
(retired from HE but now immersed in practice in the field)