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Social Workers make important decisions daily that can have lifelong consequences on the children and families they serve. Given that their decisions carry so much importance, it is necessary to understand how to reliably and consistently improve expert performance.

Learn more about our products that help social works train and develop their skills:

Virtual Home Simulation Software (VHS)
Virtual Motivational Interviewing Mobile App (VMI)

Skills

Just as airplane pilots train and develop their essential skills in a virtual simulator, so too there is
a comparable need to train social workers on essential skills using virtual simulation, instead of
the current approach of “figure it out on the job.” These skills include but are not limited to:

Proper identification of child welfare risk and protective factors in a home (VHS VR)
Proper identification of child welfare risk and protective factors in a home (VHS VR)
Identification of worker safety issues during a home visit (VHS VR)
Identification of worker safety issues during a home visit (VHS VR)
Supervisors and trainers seeking MI skill development tools for teams and trainees
Supervisors and trainers seeking MI skill development tools for teams and trainees
Documentation of rationale and next steps (VHS VR)
Effective communication with families using Motivational Interviewing techniques (VMI app)
Effective communication with families using Motivational Interviewing techniques (VMI app)

More About VSWT

Technologically enhanced learning tools have proven effective in other fields such as sports, medicine, and the military in facilitating the development and consistent application of targeted skills (Aguinis & Kraiger, 2009; Clark & Mayer, 2008; Hays, Jacobs, Prince, & Salas, 1992; Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Quality of Health Care in America, 2001). To provide deliberate practice opportunities to social workers, a suite of software modules designed to provide repeated practice opportunities for learners has been developed that are all part of the Virtual Skills & Workforce Trainer (VSWT; www.vswt.utah.edu). These skills modules specifically aim to improve skills toward helping different workers more accurately, and expertly, apply their skills in evidence-backed ways that carry higher correlations to positive client outcomes.

VSWT was developed with a framework of providing opportunities for repeated practice that simultaneously measures skill acquisition, and is designed to incorporate the necessary conditions for learning, such as immediate and meaningful feedback (Ericsson, 2008, 2016; Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Romer, 1993). Feedback throughout practice sessions is necessary to develop consistent and accurate social work skills (Ericsson, Charness, Feltovich, & Hoffman, 2006).

view of the virtual social work trainer