Making the Transition: Comparing Research on Newly Qualified Social Workers with Other Professions

This article reports the results of a scoping review examining the transition from student to newly qualified professional across the social work, teaching, nursing and allied health professions. The extent to which professional qualifying programmes prepare students to make the transition into the workplace is a dominant theme in the literature but there is limited consensus about how to measure this reliably and objectively. The perceptions of newly qualified professionals, their supervisors and line managers predominate, with little attention being paid to the role played by others, such as colleagues, in this transition. Tensions between employer and educator views can be observed across the professions. There is some evidence that induction has a beneficial effect. The article suggests that there is a role for more complex methodologies that encompass a broader range of perspectives, including those of colleagues and people using services, and look at the impact of preparedness upon newly qualified professionals' motivations to remain in their chosen career. The implications for social work are that efforts to improve the experiences of newly qualified social workers may need to be seen in the context of the wider system of practice and not narrowly focused on the individual practitioner.