Dr. K. G.PARASHURAMA,
The professional social work education and
the student social workers are familiar with the paradigmatic shift in the
organization. We desire that social workers to be competent to offer quality
services to the needy and participate in bringing about structural changes so
as to meet the challenges known us during the modern times, and in the light of
changing ideologies. We have to deliberate on the requirements for improving
the quality and competency of the social work professionals.
We
have seen that to practice social work effectively, one must be able to provide
a variety of helping services. The social worker not only must be able to work
directly with a client or clients, but also must be prepared to understand and
work to change the environment of these clients. The social worker must be
competent in knowledge, values, and skills to help clients resolve a broad
range of existing or potential problems in social functioning.
What are the basic competencies that are
fundamental to social work practice?
Depending
on the particular job a social worker occupies, the type of agency, client
capabilities, problems being addressed, and resources available, the social
worker will need to have differing competencies. With a generalist perspective
and a gamut of helping techniques, the social worker is prepared to begin most
social work jobs. As one becomes experienced and jobs become more specialized,
additional skills may be required.
As
social work gradually has reached greater consensus regarding how it should be
defined, it has become possible to be more precise about the competencies
required to fulfill that role. Throughout social work's recent history several
efforts have been made to identify the critical tasks performed by social
workers. The primary limitation of these approaches was their reliance on
experts to describe what social workers do in their daily practice. Too often
these descriptions were more assertions about what social workers should be
doing than factual statements of what tasks social workers actually perform.
NASW conducted a project designed to address its concern that many human
service agencies were reducing the professional education requirements for many
social work jobs and, therefore, reclassifying them to lower level positions.
In an effort to establish a method to determine if there is a valid
relationship between the content of professional education programs and social
work practice activities, the NASW Classification Validation Project
constructed a "job analysis" approach for studying social work
practice that yields important empirical data about the activities of social
work practitioners.
Several studies have been completed in
which the job-analysis methodology has been used. One such study using this
methodology yielded the following sixteen clusters of practice activity as
performed by social workers in both governmental (public) and voluntary
(private) social agencies:
1.
Formal
Intervention with Individual Clients. Use specific assessment or intervention
techniques to provide support, improve
client functioning.
2.
Ongoing
Case Management for Specific Clients. Organize work and make arrangements for
carrying out an ongoing plan of services for a specific clent.
3.
Teaching
of Adaptive and Daily Living Skills. Give informal instruction to help clients,
volunteers, and agency personnel acquire adaptive skills for daily living.
4.
Linking
Clients to Resources.
5.
Resource
Assessment and Aggressive Client Brokering Identify service providers.
6.
Initiation
and Adjustment of Service Plan. Carry out activities for individual or multiple
clients, to develop a service plan (at intake) or change it at strategic
points.
7.
Assessment
of the Need for Protective Services.
8.
Arrangement
of Specific Services for Clients.
9.
Formal
Intervention with Groups. Use formal interventive techniques with groups in
order to teach skills in group participation to group members or to improve
social functioning by taking part in the group process.
10. Self Development/Information Transmission.
Engage in activities designed to develop self-awareness with regard to one's
knowledge, skills, and values as such self-awareness relates to improvement in
job functioning. Keep, current by reading various materials, attending
workshops, and exchanging various types of information.
11. Quality Assurance Monitoring. Communicate
organizational performance expectations in order to insure compliance with
organizational standards.
12. Staff Management. Clarify job duties and
agency rules, establish work schedules, and assign cases and other
responsibilities to staff members.
13. Internal Paper Flow. Fill out and/or sign
vouchers, requisitions, or standard data collection forms
14. Ongoing Program/Unit Administration.
Perform tasks associated with day to day operation of a program or
administrative unit. Activities include budgeting, monitoring, and
documentation of expenditures, keeping track of supplies and inventory,
monitoring the status of buildings and equipment, and summarizing information
about staff.
15. Management of Organizational
Change/External Relations.
16. Program Planning / Design/Evaluation.
Assess the need for new services, establish program goals, design programs,
plan service delivery mechanisms, secure support and resources, prepare staff,
and evaluate program differences.
Analysis of rankings of the importance of
each of these sixteen clusters of practice tasks indicated that persons engaged
in direct service jobs were most likely to engage in the activities described
in clusters 1-9 while those in supervisory or administrative jobs were likely
to find clusters 11-16 most important in their work. All workers were somewhat
evenly involved in cluster 10, Self Development/Information' Transmission. It
is evident from these data that social workers have varied jobs that require
competence to perform many tasks. It takes rigorous professional education to
master the necessary competencies to enter social work practice prepared to
provide the services required by persons in need.
To
prepare a competent social worker following Suggestions are given to the
academic institutions:
1.
The
academic syllabus for the social work students needs a revision. Along with the theoretical aspects, greater
time shall be reserved for skill development aspects.
2.
The
language skill though a technical skill, is also the part of communication
skill. Especially, the English language
being a problem for the rural social work students, Schools of social work are
called for taking initiatives to conduct the language courses with emphasis to
English Language.
3.
The
social exposure is lacking especially in the rural areas. Academic institutions are recommended to
maximize the social exposure.
4.
The
managerial and leadership skills can be cultivated only through the process of
trainings. The skill development programmes are to be the part of academic
education so that the learners are able to relate the theoretical aspects to
the present day situation.
5.
The
parents of the learners and the management of the academic institutions are to
be kept informed about the needs and requirements of the present day
organization and secure their cooperation and support for the overall well
being of the individual social worker and society as a whole.
6.
The
academic institutions should take initiatives to remind the corporate social
responsibility and keep in touch with the social/business units that operate in
the mainstream of the society for student benefits.
Dr. K. G.PARASHURAMA,
Associate Professor and Head,
Department of P.G.Studies and Research in Social Work,
Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara College,
Ujire- 574240, Dakshina Kannada, Karnataka, India
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