Celebrating social work placements at People Know How, and our work with IRISS to build and improve third sector placement opportunities
People Know How offered its first three social work placements in 2016 and provided placements continually until just prior to ceasing operating; working with all the universities across Scotland, providing social work training and qualifications.
Having social work students on placement brought many valuable additions to PKH:
- Enhancing our learning culture – it was beneficial having people considering our work and approaches to supporting people and communities; to assist continuous improvement
- Fresh perspectives and ideas – students brought up-to-date academic knowledge, best practice, legislation and research
- In-depth support to people who needed it – students would work with around 4 to 6 people so had more time to spend with people
- Reflective Practice Lived Out – core to social work is the reflective practice model, and having students amongst us ensured that the team made time to stop and reflect on their practice
- Service Development – students were able to undertake a pilot and help us develop or refine new areas of work and methods
- Partnerships and Research – working closely with universities led to further projects including various research projects ranging from citizen research to PhD studies
This news piece from 2023 provides a flavour of what it was like being on placement at PKH.
Most social work students were attached to the Positive Transitions Service supporting children on the move from primary to secondary school. They got to work with children in schools and often worked with the wider family on issues that impacted the child’s transition to secondary school.
Whilst there were huge benefits to having social work students routinely as part of PKH, and many success stories there were also areas identified that could be improved upon and a sense that more generally social work placements across the third sector could be promoted and valued more. As is often the case in most walks of life, practice varies across different settings and People Know How was keen to see placements enhanced, improved and promoted.
This led to People Know How partnering with The Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services (Iriss). We worked together to scope the initial project with the focus of the project being to explore social work student placements in third sector organisations to better understand how a third sector practice experience contributes to preparing students to enter the profession confident and ready. Additionally, we wanted a focus on the learning relationships involved in student placements, and understanding of the processes and structures that are needed to support high quality student practice and learning experiences in third sector placements.
The project aimed to contribute to the longer-term outcomes of:
- Creating a shared understanding of what third sector placements involve, and what is needed to support organisations to host student placements
- Building capacity within the third sector to support students on placement
- Developing an approach to third sector placements that is focused on a learning relationship between student/universities/ host organisations and practice educators
- Making third sector student placements as high quality as possible so placements are a worthwhile and positive learning experience for students, third sector host organisations, and supported people have a good and safe experience with student.
Fast forward a year, and in spite of PKH having to cease operating due to being unable to secure sustainable funding we were able to join Iriss at the launch of the resource designed to optimise the experience of student placements for both organisations hosting them and the students experiencing them.
Whilst being delighted in seeing the project cross the finishing line what is even more encouraging is that the project will lead to further work in this area.
Amy Watters, former VIP (volunteers, interns & placement students) Manager and Glenn Liddall, founder of People Know How attended the event in Glasgow on 29th April 2025.
“I am super proud to attend the launch of this resource, it's amazing to see some of the initial thoughts and ideas I had in my role at PKH and collating that alongside those in the sector. Massive thank you to Louise and Hannah at Iriss for continuing to take this forward and creating a resource that will hopefully benefit everyone involved in hosting placements.”
Amy Watters, Employment Coordinator, Enable Works
Click here for the resource: Student Placements In Third Sector Organisations