Quantifying creative encounters: part two

A post-qualifying course in psychodynamic approaches to practice used a com petence approach to evaluation of course and training outcomes. The first p hase of the evaluation was reported in Journal of Social Work Practice (199 3, 7(1), pp. 63-72). The second evaluation phase focused on 14 'core' compe tences identified by expert practitioners as being central both to psychody namic practice and to analysis of training outcomes. Four ratings of confid ence by students and three ratings of skill by tutors were completed each y ear, for four years. Sixty-four students, 41 of whom were social workers, w ere assessed this way. The resulting data were highly variable for both stu dents and tutors, although the trend towards improvement in skill and confi dence was clear, most markedly over the final phase of the course. While th is suggested the overall effectiveness of the course, factor analysis faile d to identify ally more specific discrimination of skill components. More e vident were global judgements of competence, by tutors in particular. As wi th other competence-based training programmes, comparing assessments of com petence with actual therapeutic outcomes might advance the identification a nd evaluation of practitioner competence.