Period: 12.8.2022 - 31.12.2024

Content: Global Social Workers of the Future: North-SAUT Collaboration (GSWF-NoSCo)

The “Global Social Workers of the Future: North-SAUT Collaboration” is a
project coordinated by Novia UAS in cooperation with St. Augustine University
of Tanzania (SAUT), which is currently planning to introduce social
work/services as a discipline in its institution. SAUT aims to provide
high-quality education that meets the needs of the local working life and that
responds to global standards. With its reputation of having a high-quality
education system and pedagogical models, in combination with a successful
social welfare system, Finland comes in as a natural choice to learn from and
to benchmark. With the increasing need for labor force, Finland will be the new
home to many people from different cultural background; thus, there is a need
to provide global competences and cultural awareness to students as future
professionals so that they can better serve their future clients. The project
and intercultural collaboration also support teachers’ competence development.
The project activities include development of an online course, workshops,
internships and site visits, as well as student and staff exchange.

As a result of the project, we expect the following:
• Creation of a new course with focus on social work from an African-Nordic
perspective, enabling a better understanding and comparison what social work is
from two different cultural perspectives.
• Improved global competence and cultural awareness of both teachers and
students.
• Beyond this project, this cooperation and exchanges of lessons learnt will
serve as inspiration for experts from SAUT to structure their own curriculum in
social work and social services. We hope to continue cooperating through other
sources of funding to further develop the field of social work and social
services both at Novia UAS and at SAUT.

It is worth highlighting that Finland is also going through major reforms in
the field of health and welfare, which will affect the field of social work and
social services. Also, current reforms to develop interprofessional family
centers in Finland, where collaboration is increased between for instance
public service providers and NGOs, can take inspiration from countries such as
Tanzania - where services are structured in a different way and NGOs play a
significant role in the field of social work and social services.

The “Global Social Workers of the Future: North-SAUT Collaboration” is funded
by the Team Finland Knowledge (TFK) programme, managed by the Finnish National
Agency for Education (EDUFI).

For more information about the project, contact project manager Johanna
Wikgren-Roelofs, Johanna.Wikgren-Roelofs@novia.fi, 358447623377.

For more information about the Team Finland Knowledge programme and the 2023
application round, contact Anna-Karin Jansson, anna-karin.jansson@novia.fi,
358504725032 or Marie Louise Razafy-Kjellman, marie.kjellman@novia.fi,
358504784970.

Focus area: Interprofessionell hälsa och välfärd

Campus: Vasa Wolffskavägen 31

Financers: Utbildningsstyrelsen

Project manager: Johanna Wikgren-Roelofs

Partners: St. Augustine University (SAUT) Tanzania, NGO NIHEP