Faculty members of the School of Social Work are currently undergoing an eight-day intensive trainer of trainer’s workshop in Ho on the TRANSFORM Africa Social Protection and Leadership Curriculum, an advanced learning suit.
The Ghana Employment and Social Protection Programme is facilitating the training programme for ten members of the faculty, who would be certified as TRANSFORM Master Trainers (MTs) after completing an intensive training session.
The TRANSFORM programme is designed to help improve social protection systems by enhancing the capacities of policy makers and implementers.
It was developed in 2016 as an initiative of the United Nations (UN) Agencies, the European Union Social Protection Services Programme, and the African Union Social Protection Experts’ Group among other bilateral agencies.
Using experiential and participatory adult learning methods, participants, which include lecturers of the School of Social Work, were trained in an environment relatable to their individual and collective responsibilities on the realisation of social protection programmes, and would be assigned training duties in districts as part of their assessment for certification.
Ms. Kate Blaine, Adult Learning Methodology Expert from South Africa, is leading the training together with Social Protection Expert, Ms. Mutale Wakunuma from Zambia, and Support Master Trainer, Mr. Mawutor Ablo, both certified TRANSFORM Master Trainers.
Mr. Ablo who currently is the Director of Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, and who is also a social protection expert, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the workshop had become necessary following the adoption of the curriculum, to equip all tutors at the School of Social Work at Osu.
“It is important that we bring together all the teachers who teach at the school of social work to go through this process as trainers of trainers, so that we will equip them with the necessary tools, materials and whatever they need to be able to execute this training using this methodology,” he said.
Dr. Prince Boamah Abrah, Director of the School, said that the training was expected to equip participants with the requisite skills and resources to run a certificate course in Social Protection starting from 2022 using the TRANSFORM learning approach and methodologies.
Other courses developed and to be run in 2022 includes Certificate in Social Work, Residential Home Care Management, Human Trafficking, NGO Management, Early Childhood Care and Development among others.
“At the end of this training, we are expected to build our capacity to deliver the TRANSFORM curriculum with specific emphasis on the context of Ghana. The training will be extended to our officers at the district levels,” he Dr. Abrah said.
The Principal further added that the EU helped to organise the course and continues to be a strong proponent of TRANSFORM in Ghana and the rest of Africa together with UNICEF Ghana.
The Ghana School of Social Work is under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, and the Department of Social Welfare, and was established in 1945 to provide certificate training for social workers to meet the increasing demands for professionals for the sector.
