CURRENT TRENDS IN DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL WORK AND SOCIAL WORKERS TRAINING

Abstract

Today, globalization is the main driving force of economic, political and social development of society. The deepening of globalization processes in all spheres of public life leads to the situation when many of the problems that have recently been internal are increasingly becoming international in nature: the rise of poverty and migration processes, social stratification of society, deterioration of the demographic situation, the spread of destructive forms of manifestation of deviations, etc. Globalization modifies many professions. Social work as a professional activity aimed at helping an individual, a family or a group of people in achieving of an appropriate social, material and cultural standard of living, is among the professions that undergoing significant changes under the influence of globalization. The purpose of the article is to analyze trends in the development of social work as a profession and social workers training in the context of the current global challenges. The tasks of the article include: to identify the actual challenges faced by the profession and the ways it responds to them; explore the directions of social workers training modernization in response to the challenges faced by the profession. To achieve the goal, the method of desk study was used, as well as general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, comparison and generalization. The search was carried out in electronic databases such as Google Scholar, Web of Science, Ukrainian and foreign websites devoted to the development of social work and training in this area. The globalization processes taking place today in the world considerably expand the scope and tasks of social work as a profession, as evidenced by the adopted global priorities of social development and the new global definition of social work. The main ways of social work responding to the globalization of social processes are the revision of its mission and tasks, the expansion of its scope and role, the internationalization of the profession, the extension of its efforts to the international level, the increased understanding of the interconnection of global, regional and local dimensions of social problems. In the context of the complication of social work’s goals, content and functions, the modernization of social worker training is an urgent task not only in countries where it was introduced recently, but also in developed countries, where programs on social work have been launched a long time ago. The main trends in the modernization of social workers training are the decentralization of higher education management, the unification of the curricular, the introduction of distance education technologies, the strengthening of interdisciplinary cooperation, the internationalization of education. Examining and taking into account trends in the development of social work and social work education under the influence of global challenges is important not only in terms of improving the quality of services, but also in the context of reforming the whole system of Ukrainian higher education and its integration into the European and the world of educational space.