Continuing Education Program

As stated in NASW Standards for Continuing Professional Education, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) views continuing education as an essential activity for ensuring quality social work services for clients. By consistent participation in educational opportunities beyond the basic, enry-level professional degree, social workers are able to maintain and increase their proficiency in service delivery: New knowledge is acquired, skills are refined, professional attitudes are reinforced, and individual’s lives are changed.

Continuing education is a self-directed process, which requires social workers to assume responsibility for their own professional development. However, with the rapid growth of knowledge, coupled with the upsurge in continuing education opportunities for social workers across the country, NASW recognized the need for standards to guide and facilitate social workers’ involvement in continuing education.

For additional information or to view this document, Standards for Continuing Professional Education, click the following link or copy and paste it into your web browser: http://www.socialworkers.org/practice/standards/NASWContinuingEdStandards.pdf

To that end, NASW-NJ's Continuing Education Program's mission is:

To provide high quality, affordable continuing education to members and other social workers in New Jersey;
To plan and implement regional continuing education programs throughout the year;
To formulate policies and procedures for NASW-NJ as they relate to Unit and Chapter sponsored continuing education programs; and
To monitor re-certification and re-licensure requirements established by the Board of Social Work Examiners as they relate to continuing education.

NASW-NJ Types/Methods of Continuing Education

Our Continuing Education Program has a variety of comprehensive course offerings. The types or methods of continuing education currently offered by NASW-NJ include:

Traditional Continuing Education Workshops. These continuing education workshops involve interaction with a presenter for the purpose of accomplishing specific learning objectives. They are held at various locations throughout the State of New Jersey and occur live, in-person. For a full listing of our current offerings, please click here or review our FOCUS newsletter for more information.

Distance Education. This method provides education courses through correspondence or online study, with the presenter and the student in physically separate locations. Distance education workshops provide convenience by eliminating scheduling conflicts, difficulties reaching workshop locations, and expensive fees to cover presenter and location fees. The following distance education options currently available through NASW-NJ are:
- Online CE Institute. You earn CE credits right at home, by listening/watching on your own computer at your convenience, passing the post-test and then print out your CE certificate on the spot. To peruse our catalogue of great CE programs, click here.
- Podcasts. A Podcast is an audio file, a MP3, most likely, in talk show format, along with a way to subscribe to the show and have it automatically delivered to your iPod, your desktop, or any of the newsreaders available that can download the file to your desktop. iPod users can download NASW-NJ Podcasts by entering "http://feeds.feedburner.com/NASWNJPodcast" in the Subscribe to Podcast section (Under Advanced on the menu bar). To view our selection of podcasts, please click here. Please note that some of our podcasts do not offer continuing education credits. In the meantime, the current CE eligible offerings follow this procedure to receive CE credit: after downloading and receiving the title(s) of your choice, you listen to the audio CD and review any additional materials included. Following completion of the course, you will complete a post-test. For podcasts, you can complete the post-test online at www.naswnj.org and within 3 weeks you will receive a certificate if you pass the test with a score of 70% or more.

Annual Conference & Exhibition. NASW-NJ offers a three day, statewide conference each year. Our goal is to update social workers with new developments in social work and related fields. The conference includes traditional continuing education workshops and other programs, in which attendees can receive up to and more than 20 credits. For information on becoming a presenter at the upcoming conference or additional details, please click here for the 2013 Call for Papers Guidelines: http://naswnj.org/associations/5560/files/Call%20for%20Papers%202013-%20FINAL.pdf
Pack-N-Go Program. These continuing education workshops are also presented in a traditional continuing education structure which involves interaction with a presenter for the purpose of accomplishing specific learning objectives. However, the Pack-N-Go Program is all about convenience and really lives up to its name. If an agency, organization, or individual identifies a program, presenter, or topic that NASW-NJ offers, and can provide 8-10 guaranteed attendees, secure a location, and provide light refreshments, then we will “PACK” our course and “GO” to your site! With minimal effort from you, we will deliver the profession’s most sought after courses to your doorstep! If you are interested in setting up a Pack-N-Go workshop please call Kendra Hayes: 732-296-8070 x16.

Refund Requests:
All refund requests must be submitted in writing via mail to NASW-NJ Chapter or by clicking the following link: http://m360.naswnj.org/admin/forms/ViewForm.aspx?id=28013. NO REFUND REQUESTS WILL BE ACCEPTED VIA EMAIL OR PHONE.

Valid requests must be received within five days of course end date. All refunds are subject to a $25.00 processing fee. Credit will not be issued toward a future program date. Refund requests typically require 3-4 weeks processing time and will be issued as a check as is our policy.