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Social Work

Helping people help themselves: empower people to overcome difficult circumstances
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Does Social Work suit me?

Studying Social Work

Social work is a field of study that will prepare you to support and accompany people in difficult life circumstances. For example, you’ll work with children, young people, families, minority communities, people with disabilities, addictions, criminal histories.

The term social work covers several areas that deal with social and individual problems and offers help to those affected. During your studies, you’ll learn to analyze social problems, identify the needs of individuals and groups and develop appropriate support services.

Social work as a field of study covers topics from areas such as social policy, sociology, psychology, education and law. You’ll also acquire skillsfor working with those affected, which you can often apply in practical contexts during your studies.

As you can specialize in working with many different target groups and contexts within this field of study, the list of typical degree programs is also quite long. These may include social work and business management, international social work, child and youth work, youth, family and social welfare or social work and social pedagogy.

Personal requirements | Social Work

  • Enjoy working with people
  • Physical and mental resilience
  • Stress resilience
  • Patience and empathy
  • Social skills and open-mindedness

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Typical course content | Social Work

  • Counseling and intervention methods
  • Applied social sciences
  • Conflict counseling
  • Self-perception and perception of others
  • Ethics in health and human services
  • Social work and health
  • Gender and diversity
  • Social administration and social policy
  • Fundamentals of developmental psychology
  • Mental disorders and their treatment

Career prospects | Social Work

As a social worker, you’ll help people of all ages to overcome crises or problematic life circumstances. You can typically specialize in one subarea or target group: typical fields of employment include child, youth and family support, care for the elderly and disabled, clinical social work, refugee support and addiction work.

You may also manage social or socio-therapeutic facilities or work in youth welfare offices, psychiatric wards, prisons, or probation services. A variety of jobs will also await you in the administration of social institutions.


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