Earlier this month, 13 of our IV-E MSW Child Welfare students completed the Minnesota Department of Human Services’ Child Welfare Foundation Training (CWFT). The CWFT is mandatory for all newly hired child welfare workers in counties throughout Minnesota, as well as new hires from White Earth and Leech Lake. The training meets the statutory requirement (Minn. Stat. 626.559, subd. 1a) for training of new child protection workers. These students were among the first cohort of University of Minnesota MSW IV-E Child Welfare students to complete the CWFT, which includes extensive online and classroom training, during their MSW programming. We look forward to continuing this partnership with DHS for future cohorts.
Receiving this training during students’ MSW programming is advantageous for several reasons. First, students take this specialized training concurrently with their county child protection/child welfare field placement, enhancing both their classroom learning and field experience. Second, MSW IV-E graduates will have increased skills and knowledge, and they will have received their CWFT certificate of completion upon graduation to allow them to move into public or tribal child welfare employment with this requirement already finished. From the county/tribe perspective, hiring counties and tribes will not have the financial and time away from work burdens when their new employees have this requirement already completed, allowing the new employees to move quickly into their new roles. We have already received positive feedback from county supervisors that this will be a desirable quality in new hires.