STUDYING FOR A QUALIFICATION

STUDYING FOR A QUALIFICATION





STUDYING FOR A QUALIFICATION

INTRODUCTION

The qualification being discussed here was the NVQ3 in Advice and Guidance (Applied Community and social studies). In this write up I have outlined the experiences that were gained from the study. The course was offered under Train Brain Programme, in 2009, in Coventry (Evans 2006 67). Apart from this, the other qualification was a degree in Final Honors from the department of Language and Literature in Burundi, faculty of Languages and Human Sciences.

PROJECT WORK

To carry out the project in question, I have selected a community based project that entails an active observation, participation, and influence, which should eventually have a positive reflection on me and the community as a whole.

Theoretical approaches may not necessarily fit in on the actual situation on the ground and therefore it is necessary to gather enough information and have some prior experience rather than mere hypothetical background in order to take active participation in any given project (Sternberg 2001 67).

That situation becomes the most important lesson in practical application and adaptation because in most cases, the society and indeed communities are ever diversifying and changing with the changing times.

Ideally, project work can sometimes be very challenging, but fortunately, it has been quite enjoyable especially in bringing new understanding particularly in an area of community social work that has been an area of interest to me. For one to be more productive, in pursuit of such a project, which involves the community, it is important to be very proactive, open minded, highly organised and focused on the main objective.

In my particular case I have had the opportunity to be involved in two types of projects involving student cases. Having long standing interest in social work, I was given an opportunity to carry out a project in Burundi. This involved taking time to go out on a data collection exercise among the people of the same community.

I was actively interacting with the local people, interviewing people, gathering common reactions to political and social issues. All these took considerable effort since so much time was required to travel and meet the representatives. After gathering the information, it was then necessary to analyze the information and do a summary report. One of the advantages of this exercise was the fact that it offered me an opportunity to communicate in different languages, appreciate different cultural background of the ...