The Social Work team hosted a celebration event this summer to recognise the invaluable contribution of service users to the curriculum on the BA (Hons) Social Work and MA Social Work degree programmes. These experts by experience provide insights from a service user perspective to help co-create course content and materials, bringing candour and openness about the realities of their experience to student learning.
Talks by Sarah, a final year social work student, and Idoghor, a first year MA Social work student, described how much the experts by experience enhance the student experience through insights into the personal experience of social work, such as the difficult situations service users can find themselves in – “We learned how everyone’s circumstances are different and anyone might need to access support – it reminded us to work with kindness and respect to achieve that”. They also spoke about how the experts by experience help students prepare for their future careers in social work – “They helped to shape our journey and added colour and context to what we have learned along the way”.
Academic staff also gave presentations and talks to express their appreciation of the integral involvement of the experts by experience, from the applicant interview process through to contributions in lectures and seminars. The involvement of experts by experience is an example of how community engagement can be successfully integrated into university activities to help students in preparing for future careers.
For more information on the BA (Hons) Social Work and MA Social Work degree programmes, please contact Jackie Yaskey.