The transformation of Ukrainian society, the reformation of the system of socio-political structure of the country, the creation of united territorial communities create new perspectives for the institutionalization of social work at the local level in Ukraine. The employment of social workers in local communities able to organize, administrate, plan and provide high quality and affordable social services to people / families in needs proof this fact. Due to this the attention should be paid to the analyses of the current state of future social workers training for the work in the territorial communities and to evaluate the process of such specialists’ training in higher education institutions in Ukraine. This led to the choice of the theme of the dissertation «Theory and practice of future social workers training for the work in territorial communities».
Object of research – professional training of future social workers in higher education institutions.
The subject of the study is the professional training of future social workers for the work in territorial communities.
The purpose of the study is to provide scientific justification, development and experimental verification of the effectiveness of the system of future social workers training in higher education institutions for the work in territorial communities.
To achieve these goals the following methods were used: theoretical (systematic method, problem-oriented, normative-comparative analysis of the sources, content analysis of documentation, programs, and curricular, screening of Internet sites of higher education institutions carrying out future social workers training, systematization, generalization, comparison, analysis of theory and practice, experience of higher education, teaching activities, modeling for developing and theoretical grounding of the system of future social workers training for the work in territorial communities, educational and instructional materials); empirical: quantitative (questionnaires, surveys, testing), qualitative (interviews, structured interviews, expert assessments, focus groups, diaries and checklists), observational (standardized observation, self-assessment, monitoring) to determine the level of readiness of future social workers in higher education institutions for the work in territorial communities; checking the effectiveness of the content-technological and teaching-methodological support of theoretically substantiated system of future social workers training for the work in territorial communities); statistical (statistical processing of quantitative (SPSS 7.0) and qualitative (MaxQDA) data, graphical representation of the results of experimental research, Pearson criterion – to confirm the zero hypothesis).
The practical significance of the study: the developed system of future social workers training for the work in territorial communities has been applied on the first (bachelor) and second (master's) levels of higher education and evaluated; the most appropriate traditional and innovative forms of training, methods and tools or technical facilities have been identified and selected; mechanisms for the enforcement of organizational and pedagogical conditions have been established. The development and implementation of content-technological and teaching-methodological support in the professional training of baccalaureate social workers is related with the enrichment of the programs’ curricular with the topics related to the specificity / peculiarities of social work in the territorial community; the development of author’s training courses «Workshop on social work» and «Social work in the community»; complementing of the field practice curricula with the tasks aimed at forming the appropriate skills to work in community; organization of work of student scientific societies («Social experementarium» and «The technology of social work with different categories of clients in territorial communities»); development and implementation of social projects, training programs («Community and social work in it» and «Social worker in the community»); holding seminars, round tables, conferences, focus groups on the subject of research). On master degree – social work educational program «Social Administration in the community» has been applied.
The research materials can be used for the designing of future social workers training in higher education institutions for the work in territorial communities; teaching of professionally-oriented educational courses; improvement of professional skills and competence of in-service social workers; development of special courses, seminars, textbooks and extra-curricular education of students.
Key words: community, territorial community, community work, social worker, model of professional activity, model of social worker personality, system of professional training, readiness to the work in territorial community.
