Using simulation-based education to help social work students prepare for practice

Social work combines professional knowledge and practice skills. Current developments in UK social work education appear to prioritise work-place skills acquisition over traditional academic teaching methods, and this refocus may lead to a decline in UK university social work programmes. In this paper, we propose social work education can learn from nurse and health programmes to develop innovative simulation-based education. Modern technologies allow for interactive and immersive learning experiences, which enable students to develop practice skills safely. Through interactive and immersive simulations, facilitated by modern technology, we suggest social work education can bridge the gap between knowledge and skills.