The transition to work: Professional social workers in their first year of practice

Abstract

Work manpower research has aimed chiefly at "the student" or " the professional practictioner" , but little investigation has focused on the transition from student to beginning practitioner. Although social work education aims to develop knowledge and skills in helping clients to cope with change , academic social work departments cannot assume that social work students are able, beacuse of their professional training, to cope with major life decisions and transitions in their own lives. The transition to work is a critical one , since if it does not occur satisfactoril, new entrants to the profession will either drop out of practice or fail to operate at their optimum capacity. These new workers are a group who transport current educational doctrines into current social work practice. They are the fledgling group to whom the community looks to assess returns on its maturing financial investments in education. What happens to the new graduates in their transition from student to beginning practitioner is the concern of this paper and the year following upon graduation is the specific point of focus.