News
(16.4.2019)
International Week of Social Work was an opportunity to meet foreign students and teachers at the faculty
The Faculty of Health Social Sciences USB hosted 49 foreign students and 9 foreign academic workers from seven European countries from Monday April 1 until Saturday April 5. In particular, these workers came from Germany, Denmark, Norway, Hungary, Belgium, Slovakia and the Netherlands. The International Week of Social Work was held, this time with the topic “Social work with clients in the home environment”. This event was organised by the Institute of Social and Special-paedagogical Sciences FHSS USB. “Concerning foreign academic workers and students, the International Week of Social Work has been perceived very positively - in particular with respect to workshops and excursions. The FHSS students have actively participated not only in the preparation, but also in the successful course of the event. Hereby I would like to thank them again for their time and energy," stated PhDr. Lenka Motlová (on behalf of the organising team) who also thanked the whole team of her colleagues from the FHSS USB.
Prof. Mark Small from Clemson University in the U.S.A. who has been cooperating with our faculty for many years, also arrived in České Budějovice for the event. His lecture opened the whole event on Monday and then the week full of workshops, lectures and excursions on the given topic followed. The guests visited Domácí hospic sv. Veroniky (home hospice of St.Veronika), Fokus, Charity care service, Ledax and the Centre of early care in České Budějovice, which are clinic workplaces of the FHSS USB. They were joined by the students of bachelor, master and doctoral studies of the FHSS USB. For them meeting foreign colleagues was a good opportunity to improve their language skills as well as to compare the forms of social care in our country and abroad. It was also a valuable chance for Czech students to increase their self-confidence so that they can also travel abroad to gain experience. The list of students whom we would like to thank for their active participation is in the annex to this report.
The International Week of Social Work takes place regularly each year at the universities that belong to the network SocNet98 which is formed by a total 14 of universities providing education in social work. The FHSS USB has belonged to this network from its very beginning -– in 2018 it was the 20-year anniversary of its foundation. It is always held in parallel by four universities involved in the network, and they always focus on one particular subject of the social sphere. In 2019 the International Week of Social Work was concurrently held at, for example, these universities: University of Applied Sciences St. Poelten (Austria) with the title ‘Diversity Matters, Meeting the challenges plurality and differences in/for social work’; PXL University College of Applied Sciences and Arts (Belgium) with the title ‘Social Work in the context of well-being, leisure and tourism’. The FHSS USM organised the International Week in 2013.
Within this week students and pedagogues from the whole of Europe meet, and one of its advantage is the informal atmosphere. The goals of this event include establishing contacts and
working friendships among the participants. Then the International Week of Social Work is a very useful opportunity to discuss important topics that concern each person in all of the participating countries, in order to mutually professionally inspire and support and exchange experience in problem solving. The opportunity to participate in the International Week of Social Work is very prestigious for the FHSS USB because similar meetings in the other countries are held at the same time.
The next International University Week with be held from April 20 until April 24 (2020) in these places: Denmark: University College Lillebaelt, Odense; the Netherlands: Hanzehogeschool Groningen; Belgium: UCLL – University College Leuven- Limburg, Leuven and Germany: University of Applied Sciences Emden/Leer, Emden. In the autumn, competitions will be opened for possible persons concerned from the courses RPB, SP and RPN.
