The pilot project has now been in active progress for nine months. The most important task has been to try out The Knowledgeing Workshop as a model for upgrade and further education for social workers within child welfare. The Workshop has six meetings over a period of one year, where the participants work on systematizing their own experiences through storytelling and written reflections. A curriculum has been drawn up and the model is approved as further education at Høgskolen in Tromsø, department of health studies. The project leader, Inger Helen Erstad has the professional responsibility for the education and is the leader of four of the five groups following the program.

A Norwegian/Spanish advisor group has been established in order to try out the model and to develop a pedagogical plan. One of the participants is the Spanish coordinator Anjelica Majos, who has been the leader of a Spanish group. Within the program, two groups of social workers have been established in the Nordic countries, one in Spain, and in August another one will be established in Estonia. The participants have been recruited through partner organizations, and the groups consist of highly experienced and motivated social workers who also will profit from the model at “home”.

The project has a European dimension that include exchange of experience and possibilities for investigating practice in relation to various traditions and structural frameworks. This involves 30 persons who are either participants or advisors within the Workshop program, in addition to several members from the nine partner organizations who are involved through various roles and tasks.

The Knowledgeing Workshop and various other activities provide us with a wide range of experiences that will be systematized during the last half year of this two-year project. This gives a basis for quality assurance of the model and for conclusions regarding advisor programs. The project is supervised by external evaluation from DPU. The experience so far, after two meetings in four of the groups, is promising. We have been working with stories of dilemmas and started the written processes. The participants’ response is unanimously positive. ‘This is different from anything we have done before’, is the comment from Spain. ‘Already very inspiring and instructive’, is the Nordic comments.

Presenting the project has a high priority, through personal networks, brochures, web site and national and international conferences. The project will be completed in October 2008 with presentations of the results at an open conference in Alicante, Spain.