Diploma in Social Service Worker

Fleming College - Sutherland Campus (Peterborough)

Canada,Ontario

 2 Shortlist

24 Months

Duration

CAD 17,622/year

Tuition Fee

CAD 100 FREE

Application Fee

May 2025

Apply Date

Canada, Ontario

Type: College

Location Type: Urban

Founded: 1967

Total Students: 16,000 +

Int. Students: 400 +

Campus Detail

Main Campus Address

Fleming College Way, Peterborough, ON K9K 2N7, Canada

Diploma in Social Service Worker

Program Overview

Social Service Workers build and maintain relationships with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities; recognize and respond to individual, group, organizational and community injustices and inequalities; and provide direct services and/or a bridging to resources to improve the quality of peoples’ lives at the personal, cultural, and system levels. Social Service Workers provide these services in a range of residential and community settings while working with other professionals such as child and youth workers, addiction counsellors, teachers, social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses, and doctors.

The program is four semesters in length with classroom-based courses in the first three semesters and a block placement in the final semester. Applied learning activities are infused into our classroom-based courses such as:

  • Practicing interviewing and group facilitation skills for the purposes of engagement, assessment, goal planning and social support with individuals, groups, organizations, and communities;
  • Working in teams to plan on and off-campus events, fundraising campaigns, educational awareness days, and promotion of social change;
  • Conducting research to challenge forms of oppression as well as to design/develop/improve social service programs; and
  • Participating in self-care strategies for personal and professional well-being.

Building on the above knowledge and skills gained, a full-time placement in the fourth and final semester of the program provides a range of practice opportunities in a work setting (agency and location to be determined in consultation with the student, faculty, and available agency sites).

WHY CHOOSE FLEMING
Fleming College's Social Service Worker program is well-known within the Peterborough, City of Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland, and Haliburton counties and has established strong relationships with social service agencies in these specific locations. This is good choice for local people as well as for those that want to take advantage of smaller classes and more individually focussed learning.

The program's flexible delivery structure features entry points in the fall, winter, and spring with all four intakes running every semester. This meets the needs of diverse student groups including:

  • Students who require or wish a reduced course load
  • Students who want to complete the program faster can attend four continuous semesters and graduate in sixteen months
  • Winter intake, first semester students take second semester in the spring, third semester in the fall, and fourth semester in the winter. Spring first semester intake takes semester two in the fall, the third semester in the winter, and the fourth semester in the spring. Students starting in September complete the second semester in the Winter, the third semester in the Fall, and the forth semester in the Winter and take the summer semester off.
  • Individuals receiving funding that is dependent on attending classes continuously without semester breaks would start in the Winter or Spring semesters.

WORK EXPERIENCE
The fourth and final semester integrates learning in the form of a full-time placement and takes place in a work setting matching your learning needs and choice of location with consultation between the student, faculty, and available agency sites. Please be aware that 30 hours of volunteer service within an agency is required between entry into the SSW program and prior to entry into the fourth semester for placement and students must have successfully completed all first, second, and third semester courses prior to entry into fourth semester.

Specific agencies may have requirements such as proof of a current Emergency First Aid certification, CPR certification (Level C), a university degree, or additional immunizations. Also, some agencies may have required in-service training that the student must take prior to placement.