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Full-time work can be an obstacle to studying for a Diploma in Social Work while part-time employment frees up time but can lead to poverty. Ruth Winchester examines some innovative ways to become a qualified social worker.

Undertaking lengthy and intensive professional training in the middle of a working life can be a double-edged sword. Better career prospects and improved earning potential are undoubtedly attractive. But the personal and financial price to be paid for such training can be onerous.

A vast number of people working in social care would love to do a Diploma in Social Work - the industry standard social work qualification. Unfortunately the number of employers who can afford to fully sponsor someone through a DipSW course is now very small.

And for most people, particularly low-paid, unqualified front-line staff, taking two years off to go and study social work full time is out of the question. They are unable to support themselves and their families while they learn, let alone pay course fees. The result is that there are a lot of experienced, committed people - particularly women, older people and people from ethnic minorities - stuck at the bottom of the career ladder with nowhere to go.

But faced with an undeniable recruitment crisis in social work - and particularly among qualified social workers - innovative schemes are being set up to offer a viable alternative to the conventional full-time university course.

One example is a work-based DipSW scheme set up by public sector union Unison and Ruskin College, Oxford. Suffolk Council started the first pilot of this scheme in Suffolk in 1999, and its first students are now approaching the end of their three-year courses (see box). Several other local authorities are in the process of setting up in-house training schemes in conjunction with Unison and Ruskin College.

Other examples are the well-established Open University distance learning DipSW course, which was launched in 1997, and smaller-scale local schemes such as the one run by Tower Hamlets in London. This scheme was set up in 1997 to provide seconded DipSW training for 10 staff per year from the area's Bangladeshi, Somali and African-Caribbean populations.

These work-based routes to qualification are undoubtedly paying dividends to the employers running them, and to those staff lucky enough to get places. The fact that more than 150 people returned completed application forms for the 18 places on the Suffolk course is evidence of the demand for these courses. And the fact that all of the original 18 students are expected to qualify next March is also an indication of how much people value the opportunity and are prepared to slog through to the bitter end.

But are these work-based schemes really an alternative to a full-time, in-depth DipSW course? What are the problems associated with training within the organisation that employs you? And what will happen to these courses when the government launches the three-year social work degree course in September 2003?

Helen Wenman is the General Social Care Council's national lead adviser on DipSW and social work qualifying training. She says: "The work-based route obviously has some strengths -Ênot least that it enables people to train who wouldn't otherwise be able to do so. And because people are learning as they are going along, it means they immediately apply what they are learning."

But she warns that both employer and employee have to be clear about what is involved, and the person's line manager needs to be supportive if work and study boundaries are not to become blurred. "It's important that people aren't put under pressure - for example, by seeing team members struggling under extra work -Êand that they know in advance that a lot of the work will have to be done in their own time." She also suggests that the second work placement should always take place outside the employing organisation to give the student a sufficiently broad range of experience.

Mark Peel is director of social work studies for the Open University. A distance learning DipSW costs £4,000, and, he says, has most of the advantages of other work-based routes including being able to put learning into practice immediately. It can also be completed over four years giving students added flexibility. But Peel adds: "It's fair to say that students can sometimes feel isolated working alone rather than in a group. Although we run workshops and tutorials for students, sometimes distance learning can feel a bit distant."

There may still be suspicions that any work-based route is inevitably going to be second best to a two-year full time course.

But the government has stated very clearly it's commitment to high-quality work-based training in social work - and the emphasis is clearly on quality. Alongside this, the new three-year social work degree is expected to put an increased amount of emphasis on a student's previous experience and training, and on lengthy in-depth practice experience during the course. Both of these factors could mean that in future work place learning is the preferred option for social care.  

- Unison, the Open University, Ruskin College and the Workers Educational Association are working in partnership to develop a full range of work-based learning opportunities. These courses range from training in basic skills such as literacy and computer skills, through social care-specific courses to higher level courses. For more information contact Steve Williams or Donald Cameron at Unison, 1 Mabledon Place, London, WC1H 9AJ.

Learning in Suffolk

Students on the Suffolk Council course spend one day a week in training provided locally by Ruskin College. The course, which is being externally validated, costs approximately £2,250 per student, but the council also provides teams with cover for 50 per cent of the time students are absent, which inevitably increases the cost. However, compared with an estimated £35,000 to £40,000 to sponsor someone through a full-time Diploma in Social Work, the idea of "growing your own" starts to look more appealing.

Paul Davis was part of the first group of DipSW students in Suffolk. He was working in deaf services as an assessment officer and with voluntary organisations for the deaf prior to the course. He is now a social worker on the adult team.

"I'd always wanted to do it, but it was just impossible - there was no way I could just give up a job and go off for two years," Davis explains. "All the students have gelled really well and been very supportive of each other, and the course placements really broaden your experience and interests. I still have a huge interest in deafness, but I'm interested in mental health and community care too."

But it can be difficult to keep things ticking over while working on two different priorities, he adds. "It does mean double effort having to do the course in the same place as you work. I used to dress differently on student days to make the distinction. It can get a bit much when you're living, eating and sleeping social work - when the course ends it'll be nice to get back to having a life."

Pam Woodard's third child was born on the day the course started, but she too will qualify in March after "three exhausting years". She had been working in residential care for more than 15 years and was a senior child care practitioner when she started the DipSW. "I got to the stage where I felt I had more to offer, but couldn't go any further without doing the DipSW," she says. "It's involved a lot of juggling and discipline, and my husband has taken over a lot of the child care. We've got a caravan and I go out there to study." Woodard starts her new job as a family support social worker in Eye, Suffolk in April.