ABSTRACT
The ASSET Programme is currently a fully operational system of post-qualifying professional development within the Essex Social Services Department and groups of practitioners in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk are also beginning to take part in the programme. At the time of writing (July, 1995) there are eighty-nine candidates enrolled altogether, of whom fourteen candidates have already graduated, four with First Class Honours. In the Ford Motor Company a second cohort of engineers is about to begin work following the pilot phase of the Ford ASSET project. Where do we go from here? On the whole, the foregoing chapters have indicated that the main features of the model seem to be effective and appreciated, and our main efforts will be devoted to trying to ensure that these features continue in being. However, a number of issues have arisen which seem to require attention, and in this necessarily brief chapter we describe the current direction of efforts taking place in the Social Work Programme to extend and refine the model as described so far. These efforts are concerned with:
• the issue of the currency and authority of the competence statements, • the issue of staffing-how to maintain an expert community which is confident in its
collective interpretation of an innovatory culture, • the issue of flexibility-how to maintain an individualized learning process within a
complex set of potentially prescriptive procedures; and • Finally we describe how, in response to requests from our ASSET graduates, we are
beginning to develop a postgraduate version of the ASSET model.
