What Is Relevant Social Work Experience?

If you want to become a professional social worker, you need relevant experience. A beginner international social worker must develop all the professional skills necessary to further his career: critical thinking and active listening. By familiarizing yourself with the different types of relevant social work experience in this field, you can plan your career path easily and become a qualified social worker.

This material will look at a few significant issues: what social work is and where you can get practical skills and experience. 

Social work: what it is, professional tasks

The main task of a social worker is to help other people, preventing and solving their problems by providing therapy or counseling. These professionals can work individually with individuals or with entire groups and families

Social workers are also able to refer people to other services and resources. They work in the community and on a volunteer basis. Social workers also help resolve conflicts. They often help and protect people who have physical disabilities or mental illnesses. 

Places to get relevant social work experience

Social work experience may involve full-time or volunteer work. If you have enough experience, you can feel free to put together a resume and send it out to potential employers. Finding a volunteer or paid social work position is a practical experience for career success.

Relevant social work experience can be found in health care, education, and housing to provide social housing. Everyone can find the right fit for themselves depending on their personal abilities, skills, and desires.

Top 10 examples of relevant work experience for a social worker

Professional full-time social work requires sufficient and appropriate work experience. Together with the experts at job aggregator Jooble, we’ve compiled a list of 10 examples of relevant work experience that employers are sure to appreciate. 

No. 1: Hospital Volunteer

More often than not, volunteers in the hospital do non-medical tasks under the supervision of nurses. They greatly help patients and nursing staff. A hospital volunteer is usually a teenager or young adult who works in medical stores or moves medications, lab samples, and hospital supplies between different departments.

No. 2: Social Housing Worker

Social housing workers help people find a place to live in a subsidized program. These social workers help many people, including those with addictions or mental illnesses. Housing workers solve clients’ problems, provide counseling and keep in touch with other people already settled in a new place.

No. 3: Volunteers at the community center

The workers represented help with tasks in the community center related to food preparation and food distribution. These social workers also help with the organization of community programs. They participate in the social event organization held at the volunteer center, enable the collection of donations, and assist with sports competitions and other events.

No. 4: Physician Assistant in the Medical Office.

The professionals represented are responsible for seeing patients and preparing them for further examination by the doctor. Also, these social workers take on the administrators’ tasks in the clinic and may be responsible for registering patients, filling out a digital database, and other duties. In addition, the assistant can take calls and make doctor’s appointments.

No. 5: Volunteers in the Kitchen.

The type of social worker represented most often works in an accessible kitchen for the homeless. The main labor tasks include preparing food:

• Cutting vegetables and other ingredients for meals, following recipes.
• Washing dishes and other kitchen utensils.
• Distributing food.

Volunteers working in the dining hall have to sacrifice their time to help other less fortunate people stay fed.

No. 6: Volunteer in social housing construction.

The professionals represented are dedicated to helping build affordable housing for people in specific neighborhoods. The main focus of their work is to follow social housing plans so that disadvantaged people can find a home of their own.

No. 7: A mentor for young people.

These social workers are involved in helping young people, sharing their own life experiences, and offering mentorship. Youth mentors help young people by sharing their knowledge about education and career development, among other things. Youth mentors also help by sharing their own experiences to help solve many problems: family, relationships with peers, and others.

No. 8: Collecting donations for a homeless shelter.

Homeless shelters often collect donations from various organizations, patrons, and ordinary people. Volunteers can go door-to-door, set up collections in high-traffic areas, or use other methods to collect money. These workers also create virtual content to collect donations for the shelter online. 

No. 9: Nursing Home Worker.

Social workers in nursing homes do what they do to help meet the needs of the seniors who live there. They prepare meals, serve them, spend time with residents and organize group activities. With the help of the volunteers represented, it is possible to make it easier to be elderly and help them cope with loneliness. They serve their problems and show empathy. 

No. 10: Janitor at a homeless shelter.

These professionals help the homeless shelter, take care of the place, and assist the residents. Their main tasks include washing laundry, cleaning beds, and performing other mundane chores to keep the homeless center running smoothly. In addition, cleaners may clean carpets or floor coverings with special machines. Depending on the particular center, the tasks may vary slightly, and some require special training.

Conclusion

Social work is a fairly common employment niche. To get a dream job, you must have the right experience. You can choose any of the above ways to gain experience. Many of them involve volunteer work. But such an investment of effort and time can pay off in the form of a dream job and a decent job with excellent pay in the beginning.