So on the occasion of our latest student leaving us I thought I'd tell you a little bit about our students and how they help us deliver our services whilst we help them learn about their chosen field of study.  It's a boss mutually beneficial arrangement and it raises additional funds for us because Education Establishments like Liverpool John Moores University make a contribution to our Organisation to cover expenses and staff time.

At the moment, we have Dawn, is studying MA Social Work at LJMU and has been on a 70 day placement, Maeve is studying BA Social Work at Hope University and is on a 70 day placement, Jan is with us from Salford University studying Social Work too.

Students on placement at Venus are very much thrown in at the Deep End! They're inducted into our Organisation and allocated families with multiple and complex needs to support.  Very quickly, students are delivering support, dealing with crises and putting their theoretical and academic experience into practice.  Past students have told us that their experience with us has been very helpful and they appreciate getting to experience the realities of providing support to real families and the vast range of issues, barriers and hardships that may affect any of us.

We value the hard work that students undertake on our behalf and we work in partnership with the Education Establishment to ensure that students are carefully supervised and have the best support to enable them to continue their learning as they work.

We had a celebration today during our Makers Project (more on that another day!) session to say "thank you and goodbye" to Dawn as she completes her placement with us and we look forward to more students in September!  You can see our video of the celebration over on our YouTube channel, http://youtu.be/Lm_HV2SJkT4

You can also read more about social work students from a students point of view... check out Maeve's "From Student to Social Worker"