Social Work Supervision Training at NYU Shanghai

The NYU-ECNU Institute for Social Development at NYU Shanghai (the Institute), co-sponsored with the School of Social Development at East China Normal University (ECNU SSD), held its 2^nd social work supervision training on Dec 13^th – 15^th, 2014. More than 30 participants who are universities faculty representatives as well as professional social workers from various social services agencies in Shanghai serving population in such as Hospitals, Elderly Day Care, Disability, to name just a few. Attendees were awarded with Social Work Supervision Training Certificate upon the completion of the three-day 30-hour intensive training.

Dr. Marion Riedel, Associate Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University School of Social Work (CUSSW) was invited by the Institute to provide the training. Dr. Riedel, possessing rich experience in working at various social service agencies for many years before joining the CUSSW, also holds rich experience in providing supervision to social work agencies in the United States. She introduced the common practices and regulations of social work supervision in the United States. Topics such as supervising agency staff, supervising student interns, and evaluation were covered during the training session.

In sharing the U.S. experience with China Social Work profession to provide the foundation for mutual learning, the structure of providing field placement in the U.S. universities awarding Social Work degrees were introduced and shared; the principle and importance in fostering collaborative relationship between Universities, social work agencies, and students were emphasized and discussed, and; the importance of providing and how to provide quality evaluation to staff/student interns were discussed to a great extent with concrete examples. Role-plays were practiced to allow the participants to get insights into how to provide good quality of supervision with agency staff and student interns. These topics and discussion provide solid foundation for participants to re-configure the systems and structures of internship in China.

During and upon completion of the three-day intensive training workshop, participants have expressed their great interests in learning professional knowledge and skills in social work supervision and hunger for more. As Social Work profession is still in its elementary stage in China, training workshops such as this enhance attendees’ professional supervision skills and thus hold great potentials in moving China’s social work profession fast forward.

This training serves as the very important step for the collaboration between the Institute and ECNU SSD. Such workshop not only provides a platform for peer collaboration and exchanges on social work professional knowledge and skills-building, but also plays an active role in forging ahead Social Work profession and education in China.