The involvement of service users in the assessment of Diploma in Social Work students on practice placements

The government, local authorities and academic institutions in the United Kingdom all positively support the involvement of service users in social work practice and education. Based upon research undertaken for a Master's dissertation, this article argues for such an inclusive approach. The author works for the Training and Development Services of an English Social and Caring Services department, which delivers a Diploma in Social Work course in collaboration with the local university college. This course began to incorporate service users' views in the assessment of students on practice placements in the mid-1990s. This was a helpful development, although areas of ambiguity and difficulty became apparent, as did a lack of clarity and consistency in the implementation of the process. A qualitative survey of the views of practice teachers was conducted by means of semi-structured interviews, which focussed on the main principles, issues and practical implications of service user involvement in the assessment of DipSW students. The article offers a summary of the findings of the survey, and a critical discussion of the main issues and difficulties that emerged. Some recommendations are made for the course that the author is associated with, although they would probably apply to most DipSW courses in the United Kingdom. The author is male, white and British.     

A Comparative International Analysis of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work: A Survey of UK and US Social Workers

As service populations have changed, the social work profession in the UK and the US has attempted to respond to the needs of diverse cultures, which often include issues of religion and spirituality. This can be problematic, however, due to the extrication of religious and spiritual concerns from the public social services that resulted from the process of secularization. Members of the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) and the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) in the US were sampled to explore the attitudes and perceptions of social workers regarding the placement of religion and spirituality in practice and education. In general, US social workers in this sample were more accepting of religion and spirituality than their UK counterparts, even among those respondents who expressed non‐religious world views (e.g. atheism). A majority of the respondents in the UK (76%) and the US (73%) indicated that their training programs lacked content on religion and spirituality. In the UK, 57% of the respondents believed that social workers should increase their knowledge on spirituality, compared with 90% of the US respondents. The lower level of acceptance of religion and spirituality among UK social workers may be related to higher levels of secularism in UK society.     

实习实训提升学生就业能力的实践与探究

近年来大学生就业形势日益严峻，如何有效提高大学生的就业能力是切实解决毕业生就业问题的关键。校企合作是高职院校培养技术型人才的关键环节，本文将重点探讨实习实训对于实现学生在毕业前获得实质性的职业技能提高和职业素质培养所起的作用。     

知识经济时代企业发展的思考

在知识经济时代 ,我国企业不可不惜代价强行模仿 ,而应在国家科教兴国战略下 ,结合我国企业长期以来发展的实践经验 ,利用知识经济时代的良好环境 ,对企业管理模式进行创新 ,做到既古为今用、洋为中用 ,又独树一帜     

在与工农相结合的实践中锤炼成才——学习贯彻“三个代表”思想的体会

本文以一个高学历人员到地方政府担任行政职务的亲身经历和体验 ,总结得出知识分子在与工农相结合的实践中的四点体会 :一是在参与政府经济管理的实践中 ,进一步增强市场经济观念 ;二是在为基层、为人民服务的实践中 ,进一步改造世界观 ,增强服务意识 ;三是向基层干部群众学习 ,坚定理想信念 ,提高管理协调能力 ;四是利用自身优势 ,服务基层 ,增强地方干部的科技意识。本文认为安排高学历人才到地方担任行政职务是实践“三个代表”重要思想的一种形式 ,具有重要意义     

A team approach to practice teaching

The ideas presented in this paper were originally generated in a workshop at an NSPCC conference on Practice Teaching in March 1996. In this article we wish to develop some of these ideas further and explore the idea of a team approach to practice teaching. This is not some radical new notion, but an acknowledgement of the reality of many placements. Although a student will be allocated a practice teacher (and possibly an off-site practice teacher) he or she will not function by themselves but will be part of an organisation. It is this wider structure and its effects on the student that we feel needs closer scrutiny. Firstly, we believe that not enough attention has been given to the power that organisations can have over an individual (particularly one whose stay is only short-term and possibly part-time). Secondly, we believe students can obtain benefits from the wealth of knowledge existing in any team, drawing on the skills and expertise of all team members. When team learning works well we feel that it provides benefits for all parties - the student, the practice teacher, the team and service users.     

Mastering internal communication: Knowledge foundations and postgraduate education

Despite its importance to employee engagement and organisational effectiveness, little scholarly attention has been paid to internal communication education. Consequently there is a vacuum in guidance on particular knowledge required for effective internal communication practice. To tackle this gap, this empirical article analyses data collected in an online survey of communication professionals. The article contributes an empirically based specialist framework for internal communication knowledge, with components beyond those found in generalist frameworks.     

文化结构分析:论马克思与钱穆文化结构论之异同

马克思与钱穆都从人的生活来认识文化结构。人的生活不仅包含人与自然、人与人、人与自我的横向结构,人还生活在现实世界与理想世界之中,还有过去、现在与未来一同到场的历史向度,而实践作为人的类本性,整合人的生活的方方面面,使得个体凝聚为民族,文化呈现为民族精神。分析马克思与钱穆文化结构的异同,对于我们深入理解文化与文化结构具有重大理论意义。     

Bringing Women's Voices into the Dialogue on Technology Policy and Globalization in Asia

This article documents an innovative research project 'Monitoring the Impact of Technological Changes in Women's Employment in the Asian Region'. Initiated in 1994 by the United Nations University Institute for New Technologies (UNU/INTECH), the project sought to democratise the dialogue around technological changes and globalization by bringing together NGOs active among women workers, academic researchers and policy makers. It was guided by the assumption that those affected by the impact of new technologies should play a major part in making and implementing policy. Women workers, for example, should be able to lay claim to the knowledge which circulates through international organizations, while national and international policy makers stand to gain by listening directly to groups such as these who frequently are excluded from the benefits of globalized technological changes. Twenty-eight trade union and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) worked alongside experienced researchers, covering eight countries and holding a series of both country-based and international workshops. The first research project to attempt direct inter-communication on such an extensive scale, 'Monitoring the Impact of Technological Changes in Women's Employment in the Asian Region' shifted the debate on gender and technology onto the terrain of the actual problems and possibilities currently faced by women workers rather than adopting positions for or against technology. The collaborative research process highlights several priority areas of policy dialogue which have been neglected and indicate ways of organizing which could secure better conditions of work. The evidence uncoveredandthe concerns expressedraise fundamental questions about whose interests and values are shaping the emerging techno-economic paradigm.     

Headquarter Services in the Global Integration of Production

This study examines knowledge management within multinational enterprises (MNEs) by analyzing whether greater interdependence of production between U.S. parent firms and their foreign subsidiaries increases the provision of headquarter (HQ) services from the home country. The findings suggest that U.S. parents provide more assistance to their foreign subsidiaries that are linked in a global value chain than to those that are not involved in production sharing. This study builds on the earlier studies of the relationship between intra-MNE product flows and knowledge flows in multiple ways. First, it separately examines the relationship for high-tech and low-tech manufacturing industries, and finds that knowledge services from HQ that could be combined with knowledge of the subsidiary, such as R&D services, are primarily associated with production sharing with subsidiaries in high-tech manufacturing industries, which are assumed to be more technologically capable. Likewise, it finds that knowledge services from HQ that might be considered to be more passively received from the parent, such as industrial-type maintenance and design, are primarily associated with subsidiaries in low-tech manufacturing industries, which are assumed to be less technologically capable. Second, this study is the first one, to our knowledge, that gauges intra-firm knowledge flows using dollar-denominated measures of HQ services provided by parents to their subsidiaries.