The social worker credentialling system is designed for individual social workers for recognition of their professional achievements. Social workers with the required qualifications and experiences, who fulfilled the requirement on CPD hours can apply for credentialling at the respective professional advancement levels.

The system establishes three professional advancement levels that dovetail with the experiences and competence of the social worker applying for credentialling, viz. Level 1: Certified Social Worker; Level 2: Certified Senior Social Worker; and Level 3: Certified Social Work Specialist/ Certified Social Work Supervisor. The criteria and eligibility for the advancement levels are as follows.

Applicants for credentialling are required to fulfill 24 CPD points in one year. For Certified Social Work Specialist/ Certified Social Work Supervisor (at Level 3), at least 60% of the CPD hours have to be specialty/supervision-related.

Examples of eligible CPD activities include social work-related courses, conferences, seminars, workshops, lectures, academic presentations, study visits or publications (e.g. referred articles and book chapters and non-printed publications), etc. In general, CPD points in the range of 1 to 8 will be awarded to each CPD activity depending on its duration.

Applications for social worker credentialling will be vet by an Assessment Panel comprising members in the social work and other professional fields.

A first application fee of HK$100 will be charged upon credentialling, followed by an annual subscription fee of HK$400 (waiver for HKSWA Membership Fee entitled for successful credentialling applicants for 1 year), or HK$200 for HKSWA Life Member applicants.