The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Academy is resuming classes, offering expanded training opportunities for social workers and paraprofessionals nationwide.

On Monday, the DSWD announced that classes at the revitalized academy begin Tuesday with a training on Data Quality Management Statistical Analytics, according to director Justin Caesar Anthony Batocabe of the DSWD Academy.

The academy has unveiled its 2025 training schedule, featuring 43 courses, up from 42 in 2024 and six in 2022, following the pandemic.

“The DSWD Academy will not only showcase better facilities as the courses resume, but also specialized training, capacity-building activities, and other learning development interventions that are fine-tuned to the evolving landscape of Social Work practice in the Philippines, ASEAN and the Indo-Pacific countries,” Batocabe said.

Training sessions from March to October will cover case management, houseparents’ capacity building, pre-marriage counseling, disaster response, child protection and anticipatory actions.

“More courses means more opportunities for our social workers to attain Continuing Professional Development units,” Batocabe said.

“This is something that Secretary Rex Gatchalian really pushed for — for us to collaborate more closely with the Professional Regulation Commission to add weight into our offered courses, and ensure it becomes of immense help to the continuous professional development of our registered social workers and paraprofessionals,” he added.

Established in 1970 as the Social Welfare and Development Center in the Asia and the Pacific, the DSWD Academy has provided training to social workers and paraprofessionals for decades.