What is the major of social work? What will you do after graduation?

I. Introduction to Social Work Specialty

Social work major is a discipline with the government as the main body, social forces widely participating, social work, sociology and psychology as the main subjects, property management, medicine and law as the auxiliary subjects, helping others to help themselves as the core concept, and case work, group work and community work as the direct working methods.

The Decision of the Central Committee on Several Major Issues of Building a Harmonious Socialist Society adopted by the Sixth Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee puts forward the urgent task of promoting the development of social work. Building a harmonious socialist society is inseparable from the strong support of social workers.

Social workers are professionals who aim at helping others and use professional knowledge and methods to carry out social services such as difficult relief, contradiction mediation, rights protection, psychological counseling and behavior correction. They play a unique role in coordinating social relations, preventing and solving social problems and promoting social justice, and are an important force in modern social management and service.

In developed countries, social work has a history of hundreds of years. Social workers are not only numerous, but also generally well-educated professionally. At present, China has entered a critical period of reform and development, with profound changes in its economic system, social structure, interest pattern and ideas. This unprecedented social change has injected great vitality into China's economic and social development, but it has also brought some new problems. Various social contradictions are concentrated and prominent, and a large number of social problems have emerged. There is an urgent need for a large number of social workers to help the party and the government resolve contradictions and solve problems. Social workers with higher professional level have become the urgent task to strengthen social management and improve social services.

Second, the employment direction.

There are more than 200 colleges and universities in China offering social work majors, and about 10000 social work graduates are trained every year. Although these people are far from enough according to social needs, in fact, only 10%-30% students have chosen social work, and quite a few people have entered institutions, enterprises and other units to engage in "inappropriate" work. Many students majoring in social work feel that the employment prospects are too pessimistic. Experts believe that the main reason for this "pessimism" is that our specialization is ahead of professionalism.

Employment destination: civil affairs, women's federations, charities, social organizations, community service agencies, sub-district offices, professional social work agencies, etc.

Professional status: social workers are equivalent to government employees. As a profession, this new profession has been "indifferent" by society. Only 12% of students in this major can be admitted to the Ministry of Civil Affairs every year, and even the professional counterpart rate of some school graduates is zero. The low employment rate of social workers and the fierce examination for civil servants prove from another aspect that we still have a long way to go to achieve "big market and small government". Statistics show that there are nearly 20,000 social workers in Guangzhou who are paid by the government, including more than 8,000 social workers in Guangzhou. Mainly engaged in assisting youth education, women's work, rehabilitation counseling for the disabled and other fields. Originally, community neighborhood committees were the main working platform, and now they are gradually turning to professional social work institutions. Nevertheless, many people who are essentially engaged in social work in our country still face an embarrassing situation. Social work is a profession that specializes in social work, and most practitioners do not have relevant professional qualities and skills. On the other hand, the qualification standard of social workers has just started in China, and the definition of social workers is still unclear. People who do social work can hardly be called social workers in a strict sense.

The society urgently needs a large number of social workers, and the employment rate of social work majors is pitifully low. Why do these two situations coexist? First of all, the government, the largest employer of social science graduates, has given civil servants job opportunities. Second, the awareness of social workers in the whole society has not been formed. When students majoring in social work apply, nine times out of ten they must explain what social work is to recruiters. After they join the work, they are often used as nurses or simple handymen. This leads to another problem: they don't understand the professionalism of social work at all (they need certificates abroad), and they are more willing to spend a little money to find cheap non-professional labor.