Career Opportunities in Social Work

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Social work is both a profession and social science. It involves the application of social theory and research methods to study and improve the lives of people, groups, and societies. It incorporates and utilizes other social sciences as a means to improve the human condition and positively change society's response to chronic problems.

Social work is a profession committed to the pursuit of social justice, to the enhancement of the quality of life, and to the development of the full potential of each individual, group and community in the society. It seeks to simultaneously address and resolve social issues at every level of society and economic status, but especially among the poor and sick.

Social workers are concerned with social problems, their causes, their solutions and their human impacts. They work with individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities. Social work and human history go together. Social work was always in human societies although it began to be a defined pursuit and profession in the 19th century. This definition was in response to societal problems that resulted from the Industrial Revolution and an increased interest in applying scientific theory to various aspects of study. Eventually an increasing number of educational institutions began to offer social work programmes.

Social work has its roots in the struggle of society to ameliorate poverty and the resultant problems. Therefore, social work is intricately linked with the idea of charity work; but must be understood in broader terms. The concept of charity goes back to ancient times, and the practice of providing for the poor can be found in all major world religions. The practice and profession of modern social work has a relatively long scientific origin, originating in the 19th Century. The movement began primarily in Europe and North America. The settlement movement's emphasis on advocacy and case work became part of social work practice. During the 20^th century, the profession began to rely more on research and evidenced-based practice as it attempted to improve its professionalism. Today social workers are employed in a myriad of pursuits and settings.

The International Federation of Social Workers states, of social work today, "social work bases its methodology on a systematic body of evidence-based knowledge derived from research and practice evaluation, including local and indigenous knowledge specific to its context. It recognizes the complexity of interactions between human beings and their environment, and the capacity of people both to be affected by and to alter the multiple influences upon them including bio-psychosocial factors. The social work profession draws on theories of human development and behaviour and social systems to analyze complex situations and to facilitate individual, organizational, social and cultural changes."

The current state of social work professional development is characterized by two realities. There is a great deal of traditional social and psychological research (both qualitative and quantitative) being carried out primarily by university-based researchers and by researchers based in institutes, foundations, or social service agencies. Meanwhile, many social work practitioners continue to look to their own experience for knowledge. This is a continuation of the debate that has persisted since the outset of the profession in the first decade of the twentieth century.

One reason for the gap between information obtained through practice, as opposed to through research, is that practitioners deal with situations that are unique and idiosyncratic, while research concentrates on similarities. The combining of these two types of knowledge is often imperfect. A hopeful development for bridging this gap is the compilation, in many practice fields, of collections of "best practices" which attempt to distill research findings and the experience of respected practitioners into effective practice techniques.[citation needed] Although social work has roots in the informatics revolution, an important contemporary development in the profession is overcoming suspicion of technology and taking advantage of the potential of information technology to empower clients.

Course Details:

Professional social workers are generally considered those who hold a professional degree in social work and often also have a license or are professionally registered. Social workers have organized themselves into local, national, and international professional bodies to further the aims of the profession.

The minimum educational qualification for a career in social work is Master in Social Work (MSW), which is a 2 years course open to all graduates from any stream. But candidates with Sociology background would get some preference. Many government colleges, universities and private educational institutions are offering this course throughout the country. There is also M.Phil. and Ph.D. programmes in Social Work offered by many institutions. Besides educational qualification career in social work requires certain personality traits like compassion for the underprivileged and urge to help them, capacity to work hard under far-from-perfect working conditions, patience and dedication.

The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) was established in 1936, as the Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work. In 1944, the Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was renamed as the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. The year 1964 was an important landmark in the history of the Institute, when it was recognized as a Deemed University by the Government of India (GoI).Since then, the TISS has been expanding continuously in terms of educational programmes and infrastructure.

Over the years, the Institute has made consistent contributions to civil society and the development sector, through its education, research, field action and extension and today, the TISS has earned recognition as an institution of repute from different Ministries of the GoI; various State Governments; international agencies such as the United Nations; and the non-government sector, both national and international. A high degree of freedom and autonomy shape the positive work ethos and creativity in the Institute facilitating strong linkages between education, research, field action and dissemination, whose bulwark is a commitment and responsiveness to social needs.

Several institutes and universities are offering Bachelor and Master Degree in Social Work in India. Some most important among them are Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management, Calcutta; Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai; Institute of Social Sciences, Agra; University of Delhi, Delhi; Rajasthan University, M.S. University of Baroda, Bombay University, Aurangabad University, Mangalore University, Loyola College of Social Sciences, Trivandrum and Madras School of Social Work, Chennai. List of the colleges offering different courses in social works are: