The Value of Continuing Education by Jessi Strinmoen, YIPA's Director of Services

The changing nature of our world means that youth-serving professionals must continually acquire new strategies, learn about best practices, and gain skills to help youth address new and challenging issues in their lives. Though work as a youth-serving professional does not always require a set number of hours of professional development for re-licensure and/or continued employment, it is just as important for all of you to continue to hone your skills as it is for the social workers, law enforcement officers, and mental health professionals who do face strict hourly requirements.

Why do you need continuing education?

· Contribute to your professional growth

· Keep pace with new technology, products, and ideas

· Build skills to help youth amidst the current trends in families, communities and with youth

· Remain desirable as the job market continues to become more competitive, especially in the non-profit world.

No matter how many years you have on the job, there is always room to grow. YIPA encourages all youth service professionals to seek out professional development opportunities that meet your needs as professionals.

At a recent YIPA training, one attendee wrote, “I liked the educational opportunities. Good price for credits. Nice mix of personal info (videos, stories) that presenters mixed with factual info.” We often get this kind of feedback, especially that professionals who need CE credits find our conferences to be a high-quality and inexpensive option. Here is a full list of YIPA recent and up-coming training opportunities and conferences.

Continuing Education Credits

In order to apply for pre-approved CE credits, an organization or individual must submit conference goals, learning objectives, a detailed biography of all speakers, and a detailed agenda that outlines each topic of presentation. In many cases, YIPA will do all of this work for you. The governing boards scrutinize all content to be sure that it aligns with their requirements for licensure before granting approval and then determines the number of pre-approved CE hours to grant. This outside review process ensures that each conference is being conducted in the highest fashion. Once your board has approved a YIPA training, all you have to do (for most boards) is pick up your certificate on the way out!

YIPA seeks pre-approval from eleven governing boards, including:

· MN Board of Social Work (we are an approved provider)

· MN Board of Psychology

· MN Board of Child Protection

· MN Board of School Administrators

· MN Board of Marriage and Family Therapy

· MN POST Board

· MN Board of Continuing Legal Education

· ND Board of Counselor Examiners

· ND Board of Social Work

· ND Board of Psychology

· ND POST Board

Additionally, YIPA believes that all of our conferences/trainings are applicable to educators. We offer a certificate of attendance to each attendee so that they can use the certificate to apply for individual approval through their own governing boards, such as an education professional development committee within an individual school.

Even if your profession does not require continuing education credits for licensure, you can rest soundly knowing that the conference you are about to attend from YIPA has gone through the approval process and has been heavily scrutinized for content and quality by these outside governing bodies.

For more information contact: jstrinmoen@mnyipa.org or visit this link.