Continuing education programme in minority competence in the child welfare service
Continuing education programme in minority competence in the child welfare service
Working with children and families with a different background from the majority population has become a major part of the national child welfare work. This continuing education programme focuses on how personnel in the child welfare service can strengthen their expertise in their dealings with children and families with a minority background.
Working with children and families with a different background from the majority population has become a major part of the national child welfare work. This continuing education programme focuses on how personnel in the child welfare service can strengthen their expertise in their dealings with children and families with a minority background.

Target group
The continuing education programme is primarily aimed at employees in the municipal child welfare service throughout Norway. The programme is a collaboration between the Centre for Intercultural Communication, the programme area for culture and religious science at VID Stavanger, and the Department for Social Studies at the University of Stavanger.
Objective of the programme
The continuing education programme aims to help strengthen child welfare personnel’s expertise in ensuring that children and families with a minority background receive the help and assistance they need.
Students will learn how to critically evaluate and further develop their own knowledge, skills and attitudes. This means focusing on how processes related to migration, culture and diversity affect the circumstances of the minority population and the interaction between minorities and the child welfare service. The goal is for students to be able to evaluate and apply different perspectives, theories and evidence-based methods that promote equality in the service provision.
Content of the programme
The study programme has an interdisciplinary approach, with the aim of child welfare workers being able to handle complex multidisciplinary matters that include individual, social, economic, socio-political and cultural aspects. Students will also learn how, in order to be able to understand other people’s perspectives and horizons of understanding, knowledge is needed of how culture can serve as a frame of reference for lifestyle and behavioural choices. Such knowledge is necessary for facilitating and providing measures that children and families consider useful and effective. Critical and reflexive basic theories linked to the assumptions and knowledge on which child welfare practice is based therefore play an important role. The aim is for the child welfare worker to be able to use inclusive approaches in the interaction with children and families with a minority ethnic background, in child welfare assessments and in the implementation of measures for this group. The study programme is also based on the belief that all people have several identities and that increased minority competence is not only useful in the work with minority families but has relevance for work with all families in the child welfare service.
The continuing education programme will have a special focus on skills training and the practical application of theory to help child welfare workers deal with difficult situations in a constructive and professional manner.
Courses
- Tverrfaglige perspektiver på migrasjon, kultur og mangfold
- Barnevernet i møte med familier og barn med minoritetsbakgrunn
Facts and fees
Campus
Class code
VUMIBARN
Full or part-time
Part-time
Credits
30
Length of study
1 year
Fiancial Support
No
Students admitted
32
Language
Norwegian
Admission requirements
Teacher
Apply
Application deadline
20. September 2020
Admission for the study is closed
Admission requirements
Videreutdanningen retter seg primært mot ansatte i det kommunale barnevernet, men kan også være aktuell for ansatte i andre deler av barnevernfeltet. De som er ansatte i den kommunale barneverntjenesten vil prioriteres ved opptak til studiet.
- Det kreves 3-årig bachelorutdanning eller tilsvarende
- Arbeidstilknytning i barnevernet
Dokumentasjonskrav
Følgende må lastes opp i søknadsweb når du søker:
• Vitnemål fra bachelorgrad
• Signert arbeidsattest(er) som inneholder fra dato og til dato, hvor du har jobbet og stillingsprosent. Attesten må dokumentere at du har arbeidstilknytning i barnevernet.
CV og arbeidsavtaler/-kontrakter godkjennes ikke som dokumentasjon på arbeidspraksis.
Søkere med utenlandsk utdanning må dokumentere at de oppfyller krav til norsk- og engelskkunnskaper i Forskrift om opptak til høgre utdanning (For-2017-01-06-13).
Questions about admission?
- Inger Brit Tungland Haugen, student adviser, Stavanger, phone: +4751516224, e-mail: opptak@vid.no