Social workers go mobile through iPad app

Social workers in the UK are experiencing the benefits of mobile learning through the introduction of a new iPad app, aimed at helping them deliver effective care and support services.

The ‘Getting Started with Mobile’ app has been developed as an e-publication to provide practical advice and information to employers, to help encourage mobile learning technologies.

The app is also expected to help employers and learning providers develop their own learning resources.

The app is the first of 28 resources that the Skills for Care and Development (SfC&D) will produce as part of a co-funded project with the Employer Investment Fund. The Skills for Care & Development (SfC&D) is the sector skills council for people providing social work, social care and children’s services to the people of the UK.

Professor David Croisdale-Appleby, the chair for SfC&D said that employers in the sector wanted to make “better use” of technology to help deliver “better quality and more efficient care and support services”.

“This new app will help them to put learning into the hands of their workforce, when they need it, where they need it,” he said.

Sarah McCarty, executive director at SfC&D said: “Our first resource is intended to showcase what kind of learning products can be produced for mobile platforms.”

She added that the app made “full use” of the iPad as a learning device, mixing content and drawing on internet resources. “The app is very effective in helping employers and learning providers to find out what they need to learn,” she said.

Over the next two years the SfC&D intends to develop a range of free learning resources and services designed for delivery on mobile devices.