By S. Jolene Hui, MSW, NASW-CA Membership Coordinator
Summer is almost over which means it is almost fall and time for MSW programs to begin. Bring on the classes and field placements.
Some students have their careers plotted out before they even apply to graduate school. Others have no idea what they want to do when they embark on their graduate school journey. And some have an idea what they want to do and will use their field placements to feel out their place in the field.
In the end a large portion of graduates opt to concentrate on some kind of direct practice, in hopes of spending their careers face to face with clients, often in a therapist capacity. Because of this, when we think of social workers our minds immediately drift to the clinical side of things or, as we call it, micro practice. We often forget or don’t automatically think about the bigger picture and the ways that social workers can be macro focused.
A rigorous social work education will expose students to all aspects of social work. First-year field placements will often be something that is completely opposite of students’ prior experiences in order to broaden their perspectives. Even if students aren’t concentrating on macro, students will probably have to take at least one macro course and/or complete a macro project to fulfill the requirements.
When planning their education, students need to be aware of the importance that a blended education has on their careers. It’s a necessity that social work students get education and exposure to both micro and macro because we work with people on so many different levels. Often understanding the larger scope can make us the best clinicians in the field.
On the macro level social workers can be strong community leaders in different capacities: executive directors, program directors, program evaluators, community organizers, lobbyists, advocates, policy writers and makers, politicians, researchers, etc. We often fail to encourage students to go this route — when we should be fully pushing students to go into these careers in order to better their communities. Who better to be social justice leaders and purveyors of social change?
In regards to working at agencies, we are able to provide direct services more effectively if we know who provides funding (privately funded? government grants?).
Understanding the structures of non-profit social service agencies is essential as a social worker. In addition, taking an interest in program creation and evaluation at your agency in order to make the program the best it can be should be a responsibility for any social worker, whether the program be large or small.
Also, we should know the current social policies that are relevant to our clients. How are your clients affected by certain legislation? We must be aware of types of legislation that may impact our clients who are often already part of a vulnerable population. Why don’t we have more social workers in politics as policy makers and representatives? We are trained to look at people in their environments and often perfectly trained and qualified to create social change.
Of course it is good for social workers to also become licensed. Knowing how to work specifically with individuals, groups, families, etc. makes you a more valuable leader. Not only will it make you better at possibly becoming an executive director or program director, you’ll have the background of clinical work to better understand the clinicians working for you if you are in these leadership roles. The skills learned as a clinician translate across all aspects of life.
Careers will shift — that’s one of the great things about the social work profession. There are many opportunities for social workers explore different areas. It is to the students’ advantage to use their time in school to learn and experience as much as they can in order to have a varied and fulfilling lifelong career as a social worker.
S. Jolene Hui, MSW, is NASW-CA’s membership coordinator and can be reached at jhui@naswca.org.
