Author: Doc. PhDr. Mária Machalová, CSc., author of the study programme concept and programme guarantor, Orthodox Theological Faculty, University of Prešov Introduction The conception of social care and social assistance, and within it the conception of preventive social work, reflects current demands for innovative approaches to addressing the social events of individuals, social groups and communities. The creation of a new type of specialization in social work is prompted by significant societal changes and their considerable impact on the social dimension of people's lives and on their personal engagement and responsibility for their own lives. Therefore, it is desirable to consider within the university field of social work the need for professional profiling of students for specialized social work practice, which includes activities of preventive social work.

Professional university training of experts for performing preventive social work in Slovakia is currently absent. Preventive educational social work is a new area of social work theory and a new type of social workers' practice. The study programme Preventive Social Work aims to shape the professionalism and professional profile of students who will perform work activities as social workers within preventive educational social work. That is, they will provide at a professional level a new type of social assistance and service for social clients - individuals, groups, communities. 1 Graduate Profile

The new type of professional activity in social work requires adequate professional training of professionally and personally well-prepared social workers operating in the field of preventive educational social work. The university study programme Preventive Social Work is based on an interdisciplinary knowledge and methodological base and is built on innovative approaches in the implementation of teaching. University training of students, at the primary stage of professionalization of preventive educational social workers, is intended to be the foundation for their expertise required in the performance of professional activities. It is assumed that graduates of the study programme will continue to develop their professional competence at the master's degree level at the home faculty – the Orthodox Theological Faculty in Prešov, and after its completion, also in the process of further professional education.

Graduates have the potential opportunity to apply in practice within the applicable legislation for the provision of social services - as social workers who perform specialized professional activity - preventive educational social work - in the system of providing social assistance and services.

Preventive social work and preventive educational social workers play an important role in achieving goals, in creating content, formulating procedures, and fulfilling requirements arising from the following strategies of social policy and education policy (upbringing, education, counselling), set for the European Union including the Slovak Republic:

  • from the strategy of lifelong learning,
  • from the strategy of lifelong education and learning,
  • from the strategy of lifelong (including social) counselling for all citizens.

The aforementioned strategies directly concern the lives of individuals from many target groups, including disadvantaged and marginalized groups, which are the focus of social work and, within its system, also the focus of preventive social work. This fact also determines the requirements for the professional profile of the graduate of university training in the study programme Preventive Social Work.

The study programme Preventive Social Work is in accordance with the educational standards of social work, approved by the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family of the Slovak Republic in cooperation with the Association of Educators in Social Work of the Slovak Republic.

The graduate profile of the study programme Preventive Social Work includes professional competencies for the following activities:

  • social prevention - socialization, resocialization, rehabilitation;
  • social education;
  • educational social counselling;
  • educational spiritual counselling;
  • management in preventive educational social work.

2 Graduate Knowledge

A graduate of the Bachelor's study programme Preventive Social Work - 1st level of university education - has basic knowledge and competence in the following areas:

  • Social Prevention

through preventive social work, including educational social counselling, with a focus on supporting the process of socialization, resocialization and social rehabilitation of people. - Educational social counselling. - Educational spiritual counselling. - Analysis of the social and educational environment, from the perspective of social assistance by means of preventive educational social work. - Identification of areas of preventive educational social work, from the perspective of providing educational social services. - Analysis of social, educational and spiritual needs of individuals and social groups, from the perspective of both prevention and remediation of social problems. - Social education focused on socially endangered and disadvantaged target groups in society and evaluation of the use of social education methods within preventive social work. - Project activity and management in the field of preventive educational social work, including preparation, coordination and organization of educational social service activities.

A graduate of the Bachelor's study in the field of Social Work, study programme Preventive Social Work, also possesses the following in addition to the above:

  • Fundamentals of the theory and practice of social work and preventive educational social work.
  • Has knowledge of the roles of state administration, self-government bodies and non-state entities in the field of social policy.
  • Is prepared for the performance of social-administrative activities.
  • Is prepared for the performance of social counselling of first and further contact, social diagnostics, social prevention.
  • Is prepared for the performance of social-legal protection and screening.
  • Is prepared for the performance of fieldwork, resocialization, negotiation and client advocacy, assistance to citizens in material and social need.
  • Is prepared for the performance of establishing, coordinating and organizing social services.

3 Additional Knowledge, Abilities and Skills of the Graduate

Graduates of the Bachelor's study programme Preventive Social Work are capable, through their professional activity and implementation of activities in the field of social work, of supporting the development of individual potential of persons from diverse and differentiated target groups of social work clients, using the means of social education, educational social counselling, and educational spiritual counselling.

Graduates are experts prepared to work in preventive educational social work, i.e., a specific area of social work theory and practice. Based on their completed studies, they become bearers of approaches to social clients through which they can, by means of prevention and educational and spiritual tools, effectively support the development of the social and spiritual environment in society, and also encourage a wide range of social clients to develop and cultivate their own social and spiritual capacities needed for managing social events, situations and their social consequences.

Graduates of the study programme Preventive Social Work are experts purposefully trained based on the demand for diversity of types and forms of social assistance and social services from citizens of various social groups and also from society as a whole. Preventive social work is, at a practical level, a form of social assistance and a type of social work that graduates perform also by providing social help through educational social means.

They can work professionally, based on the legislation applicable in Slovakia in the social field, which also defines the scope of social counselling in relevant social facilities, social organizations and social institutions.

They can also find employment in other and new environments of implementing preventive educational social work based on legislation defining activity in the sphere of employment policy, education policy, regional development policy, sustainable human resources development policy, by performing the following professional roles and the resulting tasks of a social worker as: preventive social worker, preventive social counsellor, preventive social educator, preventive educational social therapist, preventive educational social lecturer, preventive educational social methodologist, preventive educational social project designer, preventive educational social manager.

Social workers specially trained for the performance of preventive educational social work - i.e., graduates of the Bachelor's programme Preventive Social Work - can find employment on the labour market as professionals within the ministries: Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family of the Slovak Republic; Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic; Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic; Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic; Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic; Ministry of Environment of the Slovak Republic; Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic. Graduates also have the opportunity to work in facilities administered by the relevant church. As well as in public, non-governmental and private organizations, institutions and facilities operating in the social field.

5 Level of Students and Graduates of the Study Programme Preventive Social Work

Given that this is a new study programme, we anticipate the following level of students and graduates of the Bachelor's study programme Preventive Social Work: A graduate of the Bachelor's study in the field of Social Work, study programme Preventive Social Work, which is being implemented for the very first time in Slovakia in the academic year 2014/2015 at the Orthodox Theological Faculty of the University of Prešov in Prešov, may continue: in the Master's study of the field of Social Work at the home faculty, i.e., the Orthodox Theological Faculty in Prešov. They continue in the Master's study programme Charitable Social Service. They are required to complete differential study units of the Bachelor's study of the study programme Charitable Social Service. And they continue in the Master's study in this programme. Thus, the Master's level of study in the field 3.1.14 Social Work follows seamlessly from the Bachelor's level.

This allows students to develop their expertise acquired for the performance of social work as preventive social work and, at the same time, expertise for the performance of social work as a charitable social service. This expands the professional competencies of graduates of the study field 3.1.14 Social Work at PBF PU and increases their chances of successfully finding employment on the labour market after completing their university studies. It can thus potentially prevent the possible problem of (un)employability of university graduates, especially in the field of social work.

6 Graduate of the Study Field 3.1.14 Social Work, Study Programme Preventive Social Work, is Capable of:

Through their activities within preventive social work, to participate in the preparation of the societal offer of a new type of social services and social assistance.

In accordance with the demand for diversity of types and forms of social assistance, to engage in the implementation of preventive educational social services.

To participate, through preventive educational social activity within the limits of their work competence and attained level of professional qualification, i.e., only within a defined framework, directly or indirectly, in solving comprehensive social problems of a general nature but with a concrete tangible social impact on individuals and social groups. This concerns:

  • Intersocial problems, which arise from fundamental conflicts of interest between various social and economic groups and subsequently affect the social situation of citizens - individuals and social groups.
  • Natural social problems, which arise from the disruption of links between nature and human society, for example the population problem, the ecological problem and related problems of individuals and social groups.
  • Anthroposocial problems, which arise from universal social, humanitarian and cultural problems, for example the problem of poverty, addictions, migration, political and ethnic conflicts.

7 Employment of the Graduate of the Bachelor's Study Programme Preventive Social Work

A graduate of the study programme Preventive Social Work operates in the following areas of social work: - social counselling, social therapy, social curatorship, resocialization, social rehabilitation, social education in self-help social groups, community social education and other areas.

(Note: The classification of institutions and legal documents below was compiled by PhDr. Lea Šírová, PhD. - Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava.)

The graduate has the opportunity to find employment in the following institutions: Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic: e.g., academy of the third age, university of the third age. - Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family of the Slovak Republic: e.g., social services home, facility for seniors, nursing service facility, day care centre, day centre, shelter, halfway house, emergency housing facility, supported housing facility, crisis centre, resocialization centre, department of social affairs and family at the office of labour, social affairs and family, department of employment services at the office of labour, social affairs and family. - Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic: e.g., palliative care outpatient clinic, pain management outpatient clinic, home nursing care agency, palliative care day facility, hospice, drug addiction treatment department in a psychiatric hospital, addiction treatment department (for alcohol, pathological gambling, etc.) at a psychiatric clinic and psychiatric hospital. - Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic: e.g., residential camp for foreigners, accommodation facility for foreigners, integration centre, detention camp. - Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic: e.g., prison facility.

8 Legislative Framework of the Graduate's Activities

The graduate of the study programme Preventive Social Work implements their specialization in professional activity within the legislative framework of the institutionalization of social assistance, which is regulated by the following legal documents: Act No. 448/2008 Coll. on Social Services. Act No. 453/2003 Coll. on State Administration Bodies in the Area of Social Affairs, Family and Employment Services. Act No. 305/2005 on Social-Legal Protection of Children and Social Curatorship. Act No. 457/2005 Coll. on the Execution of Imprisonment. The graduate of the study programme Preventive Social Work performs professional activities in the following types of institutions: state administration institutions and bodies; - entities of territorial self-government, organizational units and organizations of territorial self-government of municipalities and higher territorial units; - non-state, non-governmental, non-profit institutions, church institutions and facilities; - private sector.

Conclusion

A graduate of the study field Social Work who completes the Bachelor's level of the study programme Preventive Social Work: - Is capable of performing the profession of a "general" social worker in practice and also a social worker with a specific focus of their professional activity on preventive social work - especially on preventive educational social work. In the work team of social workers, they can perform work activities as: - preventive social worker; preventive social counsellor; preventive social manager; educational social therapist; social educator (upbringer and educator); lecturer of educational social events; educational social methodologist; educational social project designer.

Author: Doc. PhDr. Mária Machalová, CSc., author of the study programme concept and programme guarantor, Orthodox Theological Faculty, University of Prešov References

MACHALOVÁ, M. 2013. Preventívna sociálna práca – Edukačná paradigma v sociálnej práci. 1st ed. Prešov: Prešovská univerzita. ISBN 978-80-555-0932-7