Social Work Without A Degree
TIPS ON SECURING SOCIAL WORK EMPLOYMENT WITHOUT A COLLEGE DEGREE
To work as a social worker, one typically needs to possess at least a bachelor’s degree and in some cases even a master’s degree. However, even without a college degree you can still work as a social worker provided you have at least a high school diploma or GED. Though without a college degree opportunities would be limited and if you get a social work job your job title would most likely be ‘case aide’ or ‘social services assistant’. Social workers without college degree more often perform duties like keeping case records, translations, arranging for client transportation, providing emotional support to clients and investigating whether clients are eligible for certain social programs. Here are some of the ways of getting yourself a social work job if you haven’t got a college degree:
Volunteer
Work pro-bono for an organization that provides social care services in your community/locality. The best places to seek volunteer work are state and local governments, and Non –profit organizations. But before choosing to volunteer to a particular organization, make sure you concur with their mission since different organizations have varied missions. While working as a volunteer social worker always try to get the chance to work directly with case managers and other experienced social workers to gain experience on social work. Then give yourself sufficient time to work for the organization as a volunteer so as to enable you to develop in-depth knowledge of the ins and outs of the organization and the people it serves. The longer you serve an organization on pro-bono basis the better it looks when you include it in your resume when looking for employment in future.
Place an application for vacancies that may arise at the place you’re volunteering
Whenever there arises a vacancy or vacancies for the positions of case aides or assistants in the organization you’re volunteering at, be sure to place an application for the social care jobs. Case assistants for instance don’t have the same level of responsibilities as full case managers or social workers, therefore you can competently handle the responsibilities even if you don’t possess the requisite social academic qualification as long as you got some experience in social work. However, you must possess the minimum educational requirement of high school diploma/ GED and be able to work with clients on a direct basis and provide critical support to case managers and social workers.