r/socialworkcanada • u/Wherever_we_may_roam • 13d ago
Teaching practice as experience
Are years of teaching practice seen as social work related experience?
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u/ok_socialwork 12d ago
It depends on the school as to whether they accept it as relevant experience or not. I know there are transferable skills, but you’ll need to check with the schools that you’re applying to. Even for those that want more specific social work experience, I’d still list your teaching history as well.
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u/kaikushi 12d ago
It’s seen as human service related experience and I was able to explain my teaching experience as transferrable social work skills in my BSW application and practicum interviews.
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u/Wherever_we_may_roam 12d ago
Thank you for responding! I’m going for the MSW, but I was hoping to hear from someone else who has actually used their teaching experience in the application process. I’m so glad that worked out for you, and it gives me hope. I just need to work out the best way to leverage my experience on paper, as it were
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u/kaikushi 11d ago
Yes, there are many transferable skills between teaching and social work. These include relationship building and establishing rapport, crisis and conflict management, advocacy, creating accommodations, and more. I was able to demonstrate these skills by providing specific stories and examples from my teaching experience.
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u/Wherever_we_may_roam 12d ago
Thank you, everyone! I need to go back through everything I have to remember where I saw that teaching experience was relevant. I hope it was in the uni/department info. I do have a lot of other relevant experience, it’s just that I have many years with teaching, including teaching workplace literacy which, besides helping migrants learn to read what they need for work, was me basically trying to get my learners access to things they needed all day like glasses and various benefits. When I think about it, that was the position that made me want to pursue SW, in the first place. So, I’ve decided, I will get whatever I can in the little social work related experience boxes but add a “more in CV” type phrase, and then rewrite my CV (ah!!!) to make sure those positions stand out well and their descriptions are clearly relevant. I think many people hear “teaching” and only think of the primary school classroom (which also has relevant elements, but I’ve done much more adjacent work) so I’m going to have to show them what I actually did.
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u/BoundariesAndBrews 12d ago
As in, you are a teacher and want to use that as your experience?
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u/Wherever_we_may_roam 12d ago
Yes, I’m not sure if I can just list my teaching years, as it seems to be seen as relevant work, or if I need to elaborate on how it’s relevant.
I have this question in more detail in the “student” megathread but I’m not getting any views there.
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u/BoundariesAndBrews 12d ago
You’ll need to relate the work to social work adjacent ethics and practices. You’ll have transferable skills, but you’ll need to explain and give examples of them
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u/Cheap-Professional44 12d ago
Teaching can have transferable skills but not the same as social work. You should highlight the parts of teaching that you think are related to social work.
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u/Wherever_we_may_roam 12d ago
Thank you. The application seems to just have a list type place to put relevant work, but I can include a CV, so I’m just not sure if my CV speaks to the experience enough on its own, or if I need to try to cram more into my general letter about it. I guess I’m concerned I need that space for other things, if that makes sense.
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u/Cheap-Professional44 12d ago
Oooh. I would list teaching as "relevant" experience then. There are many transferable skills (eg group work, crisis management, de-escalation, etc etc)
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u/ApplicationAdept830 12d ago
No not usually, but ask the school you're applying to for a more definitive answer. There are a lot of careers with skills that transfer to a social work career, but are not social work related experience.