Research Skills for Social Services
About This Course
This course is designed to guide and supervise social service practitioners on a small-scale research for 13 weeks. As practice-research projects, the nature and topics proposed by the participants must be relevant to their work. Social service practitioners will gain research and evaluation skills that can be directly applied to their work. This may take the form of a project involving the participants to identify the needs of their clients/patients or to evaluate a programme that they are running for clients/patients. Participants will be given guidance and supervision through full-day workshops, small group mentoring and a final-day presentation.
Participants are expected to achieve the following objectives after completing the course:
• Conceptualise and construct sound research questions relevant to their social service practice that would develop into feasible research projects completed within the programme time- frame;
• Conduct relevant literature reviews;
• Apply appropriate research methods to their research projects;
• Understand and appreciate ethical concerns on social service research;
• Conduct data-collection or fieldwork necessary for their research projects;
• Conduct appropriate data-analyses and provide accurate data interpretations for their research projects
• Synthesize and present research findings to relevant social service professionals.
What You'll Learn
While the workshops and mentors may provide support on specific research methods or skills, these would tailor towards the needs and requirements of the research projects proposed. The programme strives to provide a holistic guidance and support on the different stages of research for each proposed research project.
The programme is conducted over 13 weeks. The sessions include 2 full-day workshops, 6 small-group discussions with mentors and one full-day graduation presentation.
Entry Requirements
At least a Degree in any discipline, with preference given to social science and community health disciplines and at least 2 years of working experience in the social service sector.