Social work degree programs

Passion to serve human society to make a difference in people’s lives by having a positive impact on them, strength of the program, affordability (cost effectiveness) of the program, program accreditation, student-teacher ratio, and career path for future success — both academic and professional. The US Bureau to Labor Statistics observed that there were 713, 200 jobs for social workers in 2019, and are expected to grow by 13 percent or add another 90,700 jobs by 2029 — a much faster rate than the average.

Working with vulnerable populations, frequent changes in work schedules, balancing time between paperwork and client service, caseloads and workloads, keeping with changing policies, reporting requirements, etc.

Social work is all about striving to help people to improve their life situations. They need to prepare for a high level of commitment to their profession, a high level of adherence to professional ethics, ability to listen to the needs of people they serve, and ability to assist them to cope and improve their quality of life.

Commitment, empathy, communication (verbal and non-verbal) skills, critical thinking, active listening, self-care, cultural competence, patience (lots of it), and advocacy.

Individuals with a BSW usually work as caseworkers, case-managers, school social workers, patient care coordinators, community health workers, among others. They can also practice social work. Social workers directly work with people and communities, children and families, in fields like healthcare, mental health clinics, disease and drug prevention treatment, disaster relief, settlement houses, community development corporations, child safety, education, correctional facilities, etc.

While our BSW program is structured to take several social work courses and do internships as degree requirements, it also allows students to take up to 15 credit hours of free electives. Usually students take courses in psychology or gerontology to enhance their base in social work.

Students need to learn, early in their education, that “wanting to help” is not enough to sustain a career. And they must deeply question what they want to get out of the profession. The ultimate reason for doing this work is to simply make a difference and to perform at a high level of excellence, for the sake of excellence.

My experience with students, over the last 20 plus years is that the greatest challenge is the writing and getting the paperwork done. The challenge is to have the self discipline to get the work done with no one there to “make you” do the work. Learning this early in the academic world prepares the student to be a professional that gets the job done.

Be well rounded, social work is multidimensional and demands a wide field of knowledge. Reading consistently makes a difference. I often teach students that if they want to know how to be great helpers/therapists that they should read Shakespeare and other great literature, all of which teach about the human condition.

To do well, the student needs to be organized and disciplined enough to get work done in a timely manner without supervision. This also prepares the student for their entry into the profession.

The field is very broad: mental health, school social work, forensic social work, hospital work and so much more that is considered direct practice. The area many students do not consider is macro practice. This is the area of working in communities, political advocacy and directing and leading agencies. The skills for direct practice are the same in macro practice, with simply more detail needed.

For most graduate social work programs, the first year is focused on generalist practice and the second year involves special areas of study. Electives about human growth and development are very helpful as are courses in systems theory, economics and even political science. All of these provide a broad background foundation.