TRAINING IN SOCIAL WORK – AN ANALYSIS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF STUDENTS WITHIN ALEXANDRU I. CUZA UNIVERSITY OF IAȘI

Abstract

Social work has a specificity among current professions; it has evolved continuously to respond to the multiple challenges triggered by issues of the ever-changing society. Because it is a rather new profession evolving and changing at a fast pace, social work must respond to the multiple challenges concerning the quality of professional training and the quality of provided services, implicitly. This study represents an analysis of the social work school in Iași from the perspective of undergraduate and master students within the Faculty of Philosophy and Social-Political Sciences. The main directions of analysis were the following: access to the education establishments and previous experience/volunteer work, the training of competences in social work - the education process and the educational resources, the challenges of social worker profession, the experiences and access to the national and international labour market. The study shows that it is necessary to adapt the curriculum to the new social issues, to get practitioners more involved in the education process, to allocate more time for practical/applied disciplines. The study also reveals the desire of young social work graduates to work in the system and to change whatever does not work (based on their experiences) for both themselves and those around them. We also put forward new trends in social work that the education and service providers have to be aware of.