The Academy attempts to develop a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) System for social workers to enable them to advance from generic practice to specialized practice by building their capacity for advanced approaches in handling specific clientele and complex problems.

Message from Chairperson of the Advisory Committee

Message from Executive Director

Our Vision

To enhance the total quality of social work profession by excelling the social workers’ professional competence, which contributes to building a caring, inclusive, cohesive and just society in the long run.

Our Mission

The Academy endeavours to:

• Foster social workers from generic practice to specialised practice at a post-registration level by updating, upgrading and specialising their social work fields of practice; 
• Provide a structure of credentialing and a system of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for social workers leading to a higher level of professional competence; and 
• Promote the advancement of social work theories, knowledge, skills, interventions and evidence-based practice for the betterment of social work services.

Our Objectives

In pursuit of professional advancement for social workers, the Academy seeks to develop:

• A Professional Competence Framework for social workers in Hong Kong;
• An Accreditation System and CPD System leading to professional social work credentials;
• Curriculum and programmes for specialised post-registration training to facilitate social workers’ competence development; and
• A Registry for credentialed social workers.

The visual identity of the Hong Kong Academy of Social Work is a holistic yet powerful expression of a learning community that strives for professional competence. This distinctive identity is articulated by three symbolic human figures with an open arm embracing each other. They represent three parties involving social workers, agencies and academia, which are truly committed in creating a platform for updating, upgrading and specialisation of practice in social work services.

• Organization Structure
  Structure

• Committee and members
  Advisory Committee
  Steering Committee
  International Advisors

To promote high professional standards and best practice, the Academy proposed a social worker credentialing system with three professional advancement levels. The Course Accreditation System is established to give accreditation to courses that meet the requirements of social work CPD training. Both Social Worker Credentialing and Course Accreditation are open for application on July 12, 2020.

We endeavor to develop a local Professional Competence Framework (PCF) for Hong Kong Social Workers. After completing the local research on development of the General PCF Framework and the Specific Framework for School Social Work Service, we shall move on to develop the Specific Framework for Child and Family Service.

Funder: Keswick Foundation

The Hong Kong Social Workers Association received a grant from the Keswick Foundation to create a continuing professional development system for social workers leading to the best practice competence model. The project expects to develop a professional competence framework (PCF) and further a Continuous Professional Development (CPD) system to accredit and monitor programmes leading to social workers’ professional credentials as well as a registry for credentialed social workers.

Donors

Mr HUI Chung Shing Herman, G.B.S., M.H., J.P.