Dawn Apgar & Katherine Dolan · 2024 · Advances in Social Work · Open access
Social work is one of the fastest growing professions in the nation with an expected job growth of 9% by the end of the decade and more than 62,888 Masters of Social Work (MSW) students in the United States in 2021 (BLS, 2022; CSWE, 2023). The receipt of a graduate social work degree represents an important milestone, often accompanied by entry into professional practice. While much is written about formal social work education, scholarly literature has far fewer articles about the work life of social workers after graduation. This article presents social work career progression from a developmental perspective, an approach that has historically been used to examine the life course of clients. Typical tasks or “milestones” in early, middle, and later stages of clinical or direct practice careers are discussed. Adapting life course theory to examine the professional evolution of social workers is beneficial as it helps illuminate the typical stressors facing practitioners after completing their formal education. Understanding potential career opportunities and issues may help those entering social work to better socialize into the profession and transition from one stage to the next by anticipating what lies ahead. Using a developmental perspective to professionalization is also appropriate as, like in the life course, opportunities for growth should be ongoing and lifelong. Early, middle, and later career opportunities and challenges are identified within the three pillars of social work – regulation, education, and practice. Policy reforms to enhance social work licensure portability, life-long learning in the form of continuing education, and self-care practices will assist social workers to thrive in all career stages.
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Barrie A. Irving · 2015 · Otago University Research Archive (University of Otago) · Open access
Career education sits on the metaphorical boundary between school and adult life. As such, it should prepare young people to collectively shape their futures, and individually manage their lives. Implicit within this are issues of social justice as career education intersects with the socio-political dimensions of life which extend beyond economic engagement. My study has identified how the contested concept of social justice was articulated within the career education and guidance (CEG) policy guidelines produced by the New Zealand Ministry of Education, and conceptualised and enacted by career advisors in practice. My concern was with the multiple, complex and competing ways in which economic, social and political discourses shape career education, and inform concepts of ‘self’, ‘work’, ‘opportunity’, ‘justice’, ‘inclusion’, and ‘good citizenship’, within this curriculum area. \n \nLocated within a critical theory framework, my study draws on the work of the political philosopher Iris Marion Young. Deploying Young’s concepts I examined how social in/justice is located within policy guidelines for career education, and the practice of career advisors, from the standpoint of those social groups who are least advantaged. Data was collected from two primary sources: the CEG guidelines and other related documents; and semi-structured interviews with careers staff in New Zealand high schools. A critical qualitative methodology was adopted to facilitate this inquiry, and critical discourse analysis employed to make sense of the data. A critical approach helped to uncover, and interrogate taken-for-granted assumptions about the relationship between career education and the world of work, that are written into, and reinscribed through, dominant discourses. \n \nMy findings indicated that the term ‘social justice’ was absent from the CEG guidelines, and the career advisors were unfamiliar with the concept. Looking through a critical-recognitive social justice lens, career education was found to be primarily utilitarian in nature, focused on the development of ‘self’ and located within an ‘apolitical’ neoliberal labour market context. The CEG guidelines called attention to the economic ‘health and wealth’ of the nation, associating this with goals for ‘career development’ and ‘employability’. In relation to practice, career advisors sought to ‘do what was best’ for their individual students, by providing a curriculum aimed at assisting them to make the ‘right’ educational/occupational choices. Hence, I found a degree of confusion as career advisors navigated the tensions between a liberal humanist philosophy (which underlies career education), and the state’s neoliberal emphasis on economic self-management. There was also a lack of conceptual resources available to career advisors to help them actively locate social justice within this curriculum area. This inhibited a broader understanding of how career education might both contribute to, and challenge, those social injustices that sustain oppression and domination. \n \nThis study makes a significant contribution to research in the career education field, demonstrating how the concept of social justice is relatively invisible in this curriculum area, a finding that has received little attention in the New Zealand or international literature. Assisting career advisors to deepen their understanding of the multiple iterations of social justice opens career education up to closer critical scrutiny. Thus I have identified ways in which social justice might be more meaningfully located within career education, and contribute to culturally respectful and politically responsive transformative practice. The recommendations made, and areas for further research identified, extend the conceptual resources available to career advisors, providing them with a social justice framework that can be used to guide their practices.
Nahariah Jaffar et al. · 2023 · Heliyon · Open access
The COVID-19 pandemic affected everyone's lives and general well-being worldwide, including young adults. Young adulthood is marked by a shift in various social areas including acquiring financial independence. As the pandemic was an exceptional scenario in all nations, there is a research gap in analysing how it would affect financial experiences of young adults, particularly the Muslim young adults. These individuals may face financial stress as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic due to their high level of financial strain. Furthermore, little is still known about the role that religiosity may play in the relationship between the financial strain and financial stress, notably during the pandemic. The objectives of this study were to examine the level of financial strain and financial stress of Muslim young adults, assess the effect of financial strain on financial stress of Muslim young adults and investigate the moderating effect of religiosity on the relationship between Muslim young adults' financial strain and financial stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. A survey of 230 Muslim young adults was conducted in Malaysia. Results showed that thirty percent of Muslim young adults fell under high level of financial strain while majority of them fell under high level of financial stress. Additionally, financial strain had a significant positive effect on the financial stress of Muslim young adults. This means that the more financially strained, the more Muslim young adults experienced financial stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Religiosity, however, did not moderate the relationship between financial strain and financial stress. These results highlighted the significance of comprehending the level of financial strain and financial stress experienced by Muslim young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results provided relevant parties insights in developing strategies for Muslim young adults to manage financial strain and financial stress to reduce the negative effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Deborah Peach et al. · 2016 · QUT ePrints (Queensland University of Technology) · Open access
Work integrated learning (WIL) is attracting attention internationally as universities investigate ways to improve the work readiness of graduates. Successful WIL activities can contribute to a sustainable workforce for future economic growth and an increasing number of Australian universities are undertaking to provide such opportunities to all students. Yet there are perceived barriers for some students to fully engage. While much has been done to assist the growing diversity of student cohorts to participate, particularly during first year, perceived barriers to successful participation in WIL have been largely unexplored. Given the federal government's focus on widening participation and social inclusion and the rapid increase of WIL, a systematic and informed approach is needed to improve graduate outcomes for all students.
Adolescent girls in developing countries are migrating to urban areas in ever greater numbers. While migration can be risky, for the majority of girls, migration can increase opportunities and economic stability and provide them with the autonomy to make decisions about their lives. Preventing the worst outcomes and helping girls succeed are essential to unlocking the benefits of migration. When migrant girls can take advantage of the benefits, they can be a powerful force for change in the developing world—improving lives and reducing poverty in their communities and countries. This Girls Count report examines the social and economic determinants of internal migration for adolescent girls in developing countries, and identifies the links between migration, risk, and opportunity. A wide range of evidence on migrant girls is explored, including findings on programs for girls and an agenda for increasing the visibility of migrant girls, reducing their vulnerability, and realizing their full potential.
Jessica Magaldi & Olha Kolisnyk · 2013 · eYLS (Yale Law School) · Open access
This article explores the internship relationship, with a focus on unpaid internships in white-collar industries; recommends the appropriate balance between worker autonomy and worker protection with respect to internships; and suggests a structure for internship programs to provide more beneficial, fulfilling, and balanced experiences for interns.
Tanisha Douglas DuBransky · 2014 · eScholarship (California Digital Library) · Open access
A rising number of students are pursuing graduate degrees while working and parenting young children. Gender differences in the experience of multiple roles are well-known, and graduate school and childbearing years tend to overlap. This study sought to discover how employed graduate student mothers (GSMs)--women fulfilling work, academic, and parenting roles--experience, perceive, and meet the demands of their multiple roles. Some of the work-family literature has explained the interface between the work and family domains using two contrasting perspectives (i.e. role conflict and role enrichment), and it is now known that role occupants can experience both conflict and enrichment throughout the course of meeting multiple role demands. The participants in the study were concurrently involved in the roles of parent of one or more preschool child(ren), graduate student (MA, EdD, or PsyD), and (full- or part-time) employee. Each woman completed a brief, structured demographic questionnaire and participated in a one-on-one, semi-structured, open-ended interview. A case-oriented, cross-case analysis using inductive and deductive methods was conducted. The findings indicated that employed GSMs experienced both challenges and benefits in the course of fulfilling student, family, and work role demands. However, an overall perspective of conflict or enrichment appeared to be related to the experience of role overload and certain student and family role factors, including the employed GSM's position in her graduate program, the role management technique she used, and the age(s) and number of her child(ren).
Fábio Veras Soares & Elydia Silva · 2010 · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · Open access
This paper analyses Brazilian, Chilean and Colombian experiences with conditional cash transfer programmes and how they have helped tackle gendered economic and social vulnerabilities. It is argued that Bolsa Família, Chile Solidario and Familias en Acción should be analysed within the broader social protection strategies in which they are meant to be components. Such an approach can help generate thinking on ways to improve the impacts of the programmes in terms of gender equality. A detailed description of the programmes' design and implementation features is provided in order to understand both their rationale and their impacts. We conclude that the programmes do tackle a number of gendered vulnerabilities but also have clear limits with regard to a more decisive role in tackling gender inequities.
Mary Murphy · 2012 · Maynooth University ePrints and eTheses Archive (Maynooth University) · Open access
For many people activation, helping people move from welfare to \nwork, is like mother hood and apple pie and therefore difficult to \nargue against. However badly designed activation policy and/ \nor poorly implemented policy can have unintended and negative \nconsequences. This is particularly so for women. They struggle to \nmove from a familial welfare system, which still reinforces women’s \nrole as carers and risk moving into a still gendered and segregated \nlabour market where women are more likely to work in low paid, part \ntime and precarious work. This implies many potential traps. In the \nworst case scenario activation could force women into a triple lock \nwhere domestic work, care obligations and low paid employment \ncombine to decrease quality of life and standard of living.