This spring, Trinity Western University will celebrate the 30th graduating class of its Human Services Certificate program. An offering of TWU’s Department of Psychology, Sociology, and Anthropology, this certificate has been awarded since 1983. During that time, over 200 students have graduated from the program and entered a variety of helping professions, ranging from crisis counseling to occupational therapy.
Marlae Vermeer (B.A. Social Sciences ‘09), now a Family Support Worker in Richmond, BC, said the program provided her with life changing opportunities. “Although I was merely a student, my practicum supervisors each trusted me to wrestle through real-life situations and encouraged my input when creating action plans,” she recalled. Other alumni agreed with Vermeer, noting that the practicums not only prepared them for their future careers, but also forced them to live out the ideas they had learned in class.
Gordon Chutter, the program’s Practicum Coordinator, explained that the Human Services Certificate was initially founded to help students build a bridge between their university studies and employment. Combining classroom instruction with hands-on experience, the certificate requires students to complete three practicums that can be completed either locally or abroad. Through these community placements, students encounter the day-to-day challenges of working in a helping profession while under the guidance of an agency’s practicum supervisor. Students must complete a total of 30 semester hours of coursework to receive the certificate, while they are earning their B.A. in Psychology, Sociology, or Social Sciences.
Whether they immediately began working full-time or chose to pursue further studies, students found that the Human Services Certificate prepared them well for the challenges they have faced since graduation. According to Bailey Davies (B.A. Social Sciences ’08; M.O.T.), who is now an Occupational Therapist specializing in brain injury rehabilitation, the practicums gave her confidence as she pursued a graduate degree. “In my Masters program, I wasn’t nervous at all about the idea of a placement or work experience,” she said, “I navigated the relationships, authority, and workload with ease, unlike other students who hadn’t had the same opportunities in their undergraduate studies.”
Although many have assumed that this program is only for those interested in social work, Chutter stressed that it does not try to stream students in any particular direction. “The goal of the program,” he said, “is to address the attitudes, values, and skills that are common to high-quality care within the helping professions.” Put another way, students are challenged to answer the question, “When is help helpful?” By consistently returning to this dilemma, Chutter is able to help students make sense of the difficulties they face and discover ways to take classroom concepts into the marketplace.
To learn more about the Human Services program, you can visit its webpage to watch a video featuring some recent students and their work.