If you’re a social worker in Alberta, you’re probably all too familiar with the requirement for obtaining ACSW category A credits for annual registration renewal.
However, do you know what activities count towards your continuing education?
Whether you’re a new social worker or a seasoned one, obtaining continuing education is a requirement for ACSWs continuing competence program.
This article is an interpretative review of ACSW’s continuing competence program and the requirement for ACSW category A credits.
Please be advised that this article is not written on behalf of or for ACSW and it has not been reviewed, approved or endorsed by ACSW in any way. See full disclaimer below.
What is the ACSW?
ACSW stands for the Alberta College of Social Workers which is the social work regulatory body in Alberta, Canada. The ACSW is legislated by the Health Professions Act (HPA) of Alberta. The HPA is a “legal framework by which the health professions or colleges operate and regulate its activity” (Alberta Ombudsman, n.d.).
According to the ACSW website, “the HPA outlines the regulatory mandate to establish requirements for mandatory registration, continuing competence, the practice of restricted activities and the clinical practice specialization.” It also states that the HPA “provides protection of title for use by registered social workers and a broadly defined scope of practice” (n.d.)
For the purpose of this article, we’ll discuss ACSW’s continuing competence mandate only.
What is Continuing Competency?
Continuing competency is the ongoing professional development of a social worker so that they maintain or obtain competency in a specific area of social work practice.
Social workers have an ethical obligation to be and remain competent in their area of practice. In fact, the Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW) has guiding principles for providing competent social work services which include:
- Continuing to build competency for the provision of competent social work services,
- Practicing at one’s competency level and seeking guidance through clinical supervision or providing referrals where service is beyond one’s competence level,
- Contributing to the development of current or aspiring social workers such as through teaching, supervision or, in my case, informative and educational blog posts and
- The advancement of social work knowledge such as through teaching, research, and social work publications (2024).
So, it’s likely no surprise that the ACSW’s continuing competence program follows the CASW principles throughout its credit categories for social work registration renewal.
What are the ACSW Credit Categories?
ACSW has three credit categories: category A, B and C.
ACSW category A credits are “intentional learning activities to address identified learning plan goals focused on maintaining or growing social work knowledge, skill, ability and judgment” (Alberta College of Social Workers, 2023 March, p.7). So essentially, activities that directly correspond with your learning goals as a social worker count under category A.
For all continuing competence categories there are a maximum number of hours that can be claimed per activity. When submitting category A credits, the maximum is 20 hours per activity. Which means if you take a training that is 25 hours in length, you can only claim 20 of those hours.
Category B credits are volunteer or employment development opportunities that are specific to your volunteer or employment role. For example, if you are a therapist at Alberta Health Services and your place of employment provides a mandatory training in managing crisis situations within the hospital setting that may constitute as category B credits. When submitting category B credits, the maximum number of hours you can claim per activity is 10 hours.
And finally, category C credits are self-care activities that you participate in to maintain overall wellness in your life and career. The maximum is 5 hours per activity.
In addition to maximum number of credits per activity, there’s a minimum number of ACSW category A credits per registration year. For the ACSW registration renewal, RSWs must have a minimum of 10 credits, or 10 hours, each year under this category. While category B and C credits are optional and not required for registration renewal providing that the 40 annual continuing education credits requirement have been met (Alberta College of Social Workers, 2023 March).
But what actually constitutes as ACSW category A credits?
What are ACSW Category A Credits?
Interestingly, there has been some confusion throughout the social work community regarding what constitutes as ACSW category A credits. Some social workers believe that for category A credits to be accepted that they need to take a training that is vetted or approved by ACSW. But this isn’t the case.
Whether a course reports that it is a category A credit or not doesn’t accurately reflect whether ACSW will accept your submission for it under category A. In fact, as I highlighted above, according to the ACSWs Continuing Competence Manual (2023, March) category A credits are based on your professional learning goals. As a result, each RSW has different learning goals that would require different professional development opportunities. So, when a company states that their training is an ACSW category A credit opportunity, it certainly can be but only if it aligns with your professional learning goals. When a company makes a claim that it provides ACSW category A credits, it’s important to know that this is a marketing strategy instead of a declaration of ACSW-approval or endorsement.
Depending on your learning goals, category A credits may include taking a training, watching a webinar, providing supervision to a social work student, receiving clinical supervision from a clinical supervisor, volunteering, conducting social work research, conducting a training or presenting at a conference, reading academic journals or books, and so on.
I believe there are two reasons for the misunderstanding with ACSW category A credits:
(1) Some social work regulatory bodies require trainings to be approved by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) before they’ll accept it as a category A credit. However, this isn’t the case for the ACSW. In fact, it explicitly states in ACSWs Continuing Competence Manual (2023, March) that the ACSW does not require social workers to take ASWBs approved continuing education credits for its continuing competence program.
(2) ACSW requires documentation for all category A credit submissions. When you submit your category A credits, you’re required to submit documentation for each category A activity. However, documentation doesn’t mean you’ll need to have the standard certificate of completion. Although, having a certificate is a nice-to-have, it is not required for ACSW category A credit approval. For activities that do not provide a certificate of completion, ACSW provides you with a summary box at submission where you can write information about the activity, how it relates to your learning goals, and how it contributes to building your social work knowledge, skills and abilities. From my experience, providing information about those three concepts were suffice documentation for my category A credit to be approved. But if you do have a certificate of completion, you can always upload it upon submission as well.
How Many Credits Do You Need for ACSW Renewal?
The number of credits you’ll need for your ACSW renewal ultimately depends on your registration type. According to the ACSW Continuing Competence Manual (2023, March) full-time provisional or general registry RSWs need 40 credits per registration year. While part-time provisional or general registry RSWs need 20 credits per registration year. However, social workers with the RCSW designation require 50 credits per registration year if they practice full-time and 25 credits per registration year if they practice part-time.
Something that I really like about the ACSWs continuing competence program is the carry over feature. ACSW allows social workers to carry over up to 20 credits to the next registration year. So, if you obtain 60 credits this year then 20 of those credits roll over to the next year. This can be helpful if you have difficulty obtaining all 40 credits. You’ll have peace of mind that you have 20 credits banked from the year before.
Conclusion
When you obtain ACSW category A credits you fulfill your social worker ethical obligation, maintain compliance with ACSW standards, and build on your social work knowledge, skills and abilities. And contrary to popular belief, you do not need to take an ACSW category A vetted or approved course for submission as it doesn’t actually exist. As long as the activity aligns with your learning goals and enhances your social work knowledge or skills then anything goes.
Personally, I like the ACSW continuing competence program structure because you can build continuing competence in the areas and avenues that fit your learning goals. Unfortunately, there are some regulatory bodies that take a less autonomous approach to continuing education, which in my opinion limits social workers ability to develop the knowledge and skills in areas that matter to them most. It seems that the ACSW understands that a one-size-fits-all approach to continuing education through an arbitrary list of pre-approved trainings doesn’t always fit within every social worker’s area of practice, learning goals or career trajectory. So, they allow us to have autonomy over our own professional development, within certain parameters of course.
Not a social worker yet but you want to learn more about how to become one?
Check out How to Become a Social Worker in Canada
Disclaimer #1
Please be advised that this article is not written on behalf of or for ACSW and it has not been reviewed, approved or endorsed by ACSW in any way. This is an interpretative article based on my personal experience as a registered social worker with the ACSW and my interpretation of ACSW’s continuing competence program manual. This article should not be considered as advice with respect to ACSW continuing competency program or its renewal process. If you have any questions about ACSW’s social work registration, continuing competency and/or annual renewal process, please direct them to the ACSW.
Disclaimer #2
Please be advised that this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended to be professional advice. Please note that information in this article is only relevant up to the date it was written and is subject to change depending on regulatory or legislative changes.
References
Alberta College of Social Workers. (2023, March). Continuing Competence Program Manual. Retrieved from https://acsw.in1touch.org/uploaded/web/website/Competence%20Program%20Graphics/FIN_CCManual_March2023.pdf
Alberta College of Social Workers. (n.d). About ACSW. Retrieves from https://www.acsw.ab.ca/site/about?nav=sidebar#:~:text=Under%20the%20HPA%20the%20mandated,for%20registration%20and%20continuing%20competence
Alberta Ombudsman. (n.d). Self-regulated health professions. Retrieved from https://www.ombudsman.ab.ca/self-regulated-health-professions/#:~:text=In%20Alberta%2C%20the%20health%20professions,operate%20and%20regulate%20its%20activity.
Canadian Association of Social Workers. (2024). Code of ethics, values and guiding principles. Retrieved from https://www.casw-acts.ca/files/attachements/CASW_Code_of_Ethics_Values_Guiding_Principles_2024.pdf