The proposed Certificate in Social Work is a one-year generic programme intended to equip students with an introductory social work knowledge base. The programme is designed for individuals who wish to attain a foundational understanding of social work as a step towards becoming a part of the statutory and non-statutory social work support workforce and/or are already working in social work related settings but want to attain or upgrade skills for career advancement. The programme is intended for among others community based cadres such as Community Child Care Workers (CCWs), individuals employed in children’s homes and community development activists. The programme also targets individuals from diverse vocations such as philanthropy, faith based leaders and pastoral workers, corporate social responsibility practitioners and anyone who may have an interest in social work for self-enrichment and for enhancing the professional grounding of their activities. The programme will equip students with the requisite social work skills to know how to intervene at the individual, family, group and community levels to restore social functioning.

1. Aim of the Proposed Certificate Programme

The country and the world at large is grappling with a wide range of social challenges. These challenges are epitomised by the increasing levels of poverty and inequality, high number of orphaned, abused and neglected children and other indicators of social strife such as mental health concerns, spiritual concerns and substance abuse. The advent of global emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, food insecurity and civil unrest in different parts of the world has exacerbated existing vulnerabilities at individual, family, community and country level. The wide array of social challenges demands a unified response rooted at the community level. There is however, a dearth of basic professional capacity at the community level which inevitably results in the misdiagnosis and mismanagement of many cases. This proposed Certificate in Social Work programme aims to produce a para-professional social work cadre with the requisite knowledge base and skills set to support and complement the provision of social work services at all levels in diverse practice settings.

2. Objectives of the Proposed Certificate Programme

• To capacitate students to explore their own values, identities and ideological perspectives and have a clearer appreciation of the influence of the same on social work practice.

• To equip students with a good appreciation of social work methods and their utility to social work practice.

• To apply the knowledge learnt to practical situations so as to enhance the resilience of vulnerable populations.

• To enable students to acquire and develop practical skills and/or competencies to work with a variety of vulnerable groups through mentored practicums.

3. Entry Requirements

• To be admitted into the Certificate in Social Work programme, an aspiring candidate must have at least 5 Ordinary Level passes including English Language.

• Applicants must be at least 18 years old at the time of application

• Mature persons who do not strictly meet the academic requirements but have five (5) years or more experience in social work settings may be admitted into the programme.

4. Duration of the Programme

The duration of the Certificate in Social Work programme will be 1 (one) academic year with 2 blocks of taught modules and 1 block of practicum placement.