Strengthening Competency in Policy Practice: An Experiential Model for Student Learning

Competence in micro and macro practice is required by the Council on Social Work Education because it is essential for skilled practice by helping professionals. Social work educators have historically struggled to identify learning opportunities for students in policy practice that are interesting and help reinforce its relevance to direct helping. It is imperative that new methods of policy engagement be implemented in social work curricula. This article describes an innovative model, based on an experiential statewide collaborative of all undergraduate social work education programs, to develop and assess student competency in policy practice. Evaluation results indicate that students found this model more effective in teaching about the importance of policy practice than traditional policy courses and in conveying the importance of policy to their work in the field.