Free online course could provide gateway to career in children’s care and protection

The Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland (CELCIS) has joined with FutureLearn, the digital education platform, for the second run of its massive online open course (MOOC) which delves into the details of the UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children.

The course is free and provides participants with the chance to join over 5,000 learners from across 172 countries, who now understand just how important the UN Guidelines are when caring and protecting vulnerable children.

Starting on 19 February, it is open to everyone who is interested in, or responsible for, children’s care and protection.

This course is designed for practitioners and policymakers from both state and non-state bodies (such as NGOs, CBOs and private service providers) and anyone working in providing services around children’s care.

This might include social workers, para-social workers, community support workers, lawyers, psychologists, child protection professionals, teachers, medical workers and care workers, including those in family-based and residential settings.

The course will also be accessible for people not working directly in this field and others with an interest or responsibility in the field of child protection and child care. It only takes a maximum of 4 hours a week to take part and it runs for six weeks.

Course materials are available in English, with some materials available in French and Spanish.

Previous participant, Jamie Oxtoby, commented: “This course was perfect for me as a decider on a possible career change into social and youth work. The range of perspectives from across the world has been great as I hope to work with many cultures and nationalities. Having begun to understand the guidelines now, I believe I can move on to further study, knowing what should be expected in care practice across the board.”

The course is led at with Dr Chrissie Gale who is International Services Lead at CELCIS. Chrissie (pictured) has spent much of the last 22 years working on child protection programmes in different countries around the world. She leads on our international work which includes building partnerships with policy makers and practitioners across the globe working on the promotion and use of Moving Forward, a handbook to accompany the UN Guidelines on Alternative Care of Children.

Visit here to sign up: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/alternative-care