The Wayne State School of Social Work is facilitating graduates' transition to the job market with the creation of a new learning community focused on licensure - an essential step to professional practice. The learning community will teach students about Michigan's licensure law, familiarize them with the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) exam, and give them strategies for passing it.

Licensure has been required for independent social work practice in Michigan since 2005, when state lawmakers determined that stricter regulation of the profession was needed to protect both practitioners and their clients. Qualifications for licensure at the master's level include a Master of Social Work degree from a Council on Social Work Education-accredited school of social work and 4,000 hours of supervised clinical or macro practice over a two-year period. Students who do not pass the licensure exam may obtain a limited license, which requires their practice to be supervised and which can only be renewed six times.

Unfortunately, the pass rates for the licensing exam in Michigan are lower than the pass rates for North America. The new learning community, called Licensure Exam and Achievement Preparation (L.E.A.P.), will help students develop study skills and form study groups, manage test anxiety and integrate and apply knowledge gained from classroom and field instruction when taking the exam.

According to Poco Kernsmith, associate social work professor and LEAP coordinator, the learning community will employ a variety of strategies to accomplish its goals. These include monthly educational meetings, individualized mentoring for each student, test anxiety workshops with the university's Counseling and Psychological Services, interactive panel presentations with alumni who have achieved licensure, and completion of a practice exam. To disseminate information from the learning community to others, students will also learn how to give presentations on licensure to social work classes.

In addition, students will benefit from the expertise of key faculty and student mentors. Anwar Najor-Durack, director of field education and assistant social work professor clinical, is current chair of the Michigan Social Work Board and liaison between the school and ASWB. She will assist with L.E.A.P. curriculum development and coordinate guest speakers and the practice exam. Lauree Emery, director of the Office of Continuing Education and Professional Development, coordinates the office's weekend licensing exam preparation seminar for alumni and will also assist with curriculum development. Each year, one student participating in L.E.A.P. will win free admission to the office's weekend seminar and two others will win copies of the seminar's exam preparation materials.

Finally, L.E.A.P. has engaged two student mentors to help L.E.A.P. participants develop plans to prepare for the exam, access available resources, form study groups, and evaluate their performance on the practice exam. These mentors are M.S.W. student Kyle Williamson and Ph.D. student Crecendra Brown.

L.E.A.P. has invited Jan Fitts, senior manager of the ASWB Education and Training Program, to campus at the end of the month. On Sept. 30 from 10 to 11:30 a.m., Fitts will attend a meet-and-greet in Room 150 of Thompson Home to share information on the ASWB, licensure exams and the Path to Licensure Project. On Oct. 1 from 3:30 to 5 p.m., Fitts will discuss the goals of L.E.A.P. students in Room 334 of State Hall.

Learning Communities are small groups of students with similar interests who work closely together in a "community of learners." With advanced student mentors and a faculty advisor, students in learning communities study, socialize and problem-solve together. Click here (http://lc.wayne.edu/index.php) to learn more about learning communities at Wayne State.