Paper presented at 2008 JSWEC Conference. An analysis of social work curriculum delivery in the UK appears to focus predominantly on UK society and practice. Social work has tended to be a locally specific discipline that has focussed on geographically bounded legislation, political configurations, economic frameworks, culture and norms (Dominelli, 2000). This may seem necessary as the majority of social work students will practice within their country of educational origin. However, it is also increasingly important that social work students gain knowledge of an international perspective due to the increasing globalised nature of social work together with an increasing transient social work population. Indeed, Dominelli and Bernard (2203, p.26) argue that: the theorisation of international social work and its impact on international exchanges in linking the global and the local has not been given high priority...This limited approach to internationalising social work has short-changed the profession... For a few social work students it is possible to gain first hand accounts of social work theory and practice from an international perspective through student exchange systems (Tesoriero and Rajaratnam, 2001). However, the majority of teaching and learning relies heavily on knowledge that is transferred from lecturer to student and, therefore, it is vital that lecturers gain an understanding of social work from a global view. This research adopts an action research perspective by facilitating first hand exchanges in dialogue between social work lecturers at Anglia Ruskin University, UK, and social work lecturers from the University of Mumbai, India. A on-line web based Community of Practice has been designed and has facilitated a collaborative inquiry over a one year period. The presentation will consider the setting up of the study: finding a collaborator; designing a web based Community of Practice; dominant themes arising from the collaboration. It will finally consider the impact on social work lecturer participants in relation to their continual professional development and how this gained knowledge is shared with their respective student population. References: Dominelle, L. (2000) 'International Comparisons in Social Work' in Pierce, R. and Weinstein, J. (eds) Innovative Education and Training for Care Professionals. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishing Dominelli, L. and Bernard, T.W. (2003) Broadening Horizons: International Exchanges in Social Work. London: Ashgate Tosoriero, F. and Rajaratnam, A. (2001) Partnership in education: An Australian school of social work and a South Indian primary health care project. International Social Work 44(1) pp.31-41

Paper presented at JSWEC 2009 Conference. It seems that students' capacity to benefit from the learning experience is influenced by their previous level of study, previous successes, the length of time since they last studied, their perception of the relevance of the study to their professional development and by the support they receive from their employer. This paper will describe our preliminary findings from a project looking at the satisfaction of students undertaking Post-Qualifying (PQ) Awards in Social Work with Children, Young People their Families and Carers. These students are qualified social workers who are currently in practice. Their qualification may be either a Diploma in Social Work (BA Levels 1 and 2) or a Bachelors Degree in Social Work (BA Levels 1,2 and 3). We have observed dissatisfaction with the entry modules to the programme from some students who feel that they are not receiving enough ‘teaching’. These students appear to be those with Diploma qualifications who have not previously studied at BA, level 3 and specifically have not undertaken an undergraduate dissertation which can be argued develops autonomous learners. Students undertaking any continuous professional development are under the scrutiny of their employers and if they are finding these studies difficult are likely to blame this on the course provider rather than expose their own capacity. This is therefore an important area to investigate as these students need the PQ qualifications and this may be best achieved by pre-course preparation programmes, to develop capacity, for some candidates. If our hypothesis is correct this will also lead to improvement in student satisfaction and completion rates.