Curriculum for Child Welfare Scholars

The comprehensive curriculum for Child Welfare Scholars is designed to thoroughly prepare students for careers in North Carolina public child welfare. A combination of classroom instruction and field education fine-tunes the correlation between curriculum and child welfare core competencies. Scholars are provided knowledge and skills needed to better serve the children and families of this state. Though course offerings and requirements may vary at participating universities, the following opportunities are available:

• Child welfare pre-service training.

  Collaborative schools are able to offer an alternative form of the state’s mandatory pre-service training by meeting the state’s competency-based pre-service standards. The state-approved curriculum consists of coursework and field-internship practice.
  
  In addition, several NC social work programs that do not provide funded scholar opportunities are nonetheless able to offer approved NC Division of Social Services pre-service training. These are known as "waiver option" programs.




• Specialized courses.

  Scholars take classes specific to child welfare and are encouraged to incorporate this perspective into all of their courses to further their understanding of the subject.




• Field placements.

  All scholars complete at least one field placement in public child welfare at a county department of social service. Scholars pursuing a master’s degree typically complete two.




• Other learning experiences.

  In addition to lectures, seminars and workshops, scholars are given the opportunity to participate in statewide conferences. Scholars can also take courses offered by the North Carolina Division of Social Services Child Welfare Training System.