Take charge of your own training

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John Priebe, who blogs on the quality profession, argues this week that it is up to the quality professional to take charge of his or her own training. This resonates strongly in the social services. In only rare exceptions does the leadership of social service organizations know what it is that their quality professionals don't yet know. Maybe they worry about training their front line staff. Maybe they worry about training their supervisory staff. But they don't stay up nights worrying that their quality professionals don't know how to do their jobs.

In the professional model of practice, part of being a professional is being responsible for keeping yourself up to date on professional practice. Think about your physician. You expect her to go to continuing education events, to read medical journals at breakfast, to learn what she needs to know to serve you and your family. It comes with the autonomy given to professionals.

In my book, quality professionals in the social services don't just get to complain that they are untrained and no one is stepping forth to train them. If they recognize they are untrained, they need to find ways to get themselves skilled up. There are resources out there -- web sites to visit, books to read, even free courses to take -- to learn the quality sciences behind modern quality monitoring and improvement. And this training is not necessarily one-shot. Professional training by its nature is prolonged and specialized.

Social service clients deserve quality service. Quality professionals won't argue this point. Social service agencies deserve quality professionals who know not just the service they monitor and work to improve, but who know how best to monitor and improve service. If you are in a professional quality role in the social services, it is time to get yourself trained in the methods of the quality profession.

Check out our resources page to get started.

 

 

 

 

 


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