The timing for Portage College accreditation renewal for the Community Social Work (CSW) Program ties in well with this week’s Social Work Week.
This week is Social Work Week throughout Alberta, March 4-10th, and the three days of last week the Portage College CSW Program had an accreditation team working on-site for the renewal process.
The long process for accreditation began a year ago with the program providing a lengthy self-study document that looks at all areas of the program. Standards related to mission, community relations, student and faculty perspectives, practicum and field placements, indigenous community and indigenous components within the college and the curriculum.
A team of experts spent three days at the college. The accreditation team consisted of five people: accreditation coordinator, three faculty members from different institutions (Mount Royal, Medicine Hat and Maskwacis Cultural College), and an external representative from the Lac La Biche area.
This team takes on a developmental process, indicating where the strengths are and looking at supporting the program if there are challenges or any areas for development. They also make sure the administration of the institution is aware of what the standards are and where the program needs to continue to do some growth.
The group completes the report and sends it to the CSW Program area where they respond. All these documents then go to the Alberta Association of Social Work Diploma Programs (AASWDP) that consist of all Chairs and Coordinators from the province for review. The AASWDP then makes recommendations to the Professional Social Work Education Committee from the Alberta College of Social Work (ACSW) where they will make recommendation for accreditation. Next all the documents go to ACSW Council to look at accreditation and then it has to go to the two ministry partners: Post-secondary and Health.
The last accreditation for Portage’s CSW Program was seven years ago when they earned full accreditation through the ACSW Accreditation Process. Portage College expects to hear back about their accreditation in April.
"We are very impressed with the program and how focused they are with working with the community” Dr. Scott McLean, Head Accreditor for Alberta College of Social Workers.
This week for Social Work Week there are several ways to get involved. Portage students have many activities in the community to look out for. Tuesday afternoon they are at JAWS high school talking to students, a raffle is going on in Voyageur Grill from Monday to Thursday and you can also engage with #SWweek2018.
