Skills Gained with a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) Degree
A BSW enables students to build the knowledge base to understand the broad impact that effective social work has on a community. Just as importantly, it helps students cultivate several core competencies to apply their knowledge toward real-life situations. This may include developing and executing strategies that can help vulnerable individuals overcome a wide range of challenges, such as unemployment, long-term care for a loved one, or access to child care services.
For instance, a BSW can help students develop strong interpersonal skills. It’s imperative for social workers to understand how to approach each individual as a unique personality with unique needs, so that solid client relationships may be forged.
A BSW can also help individuals develop solid critical thinking and organizational skills. Critical thinking is vital because it helps social workers make clear decisions regarding an individual’s service strategy.
Social workers have caseloads with numerous clients who are dealing with situations pertaining to sudden economic crises, like the loss of a job, instances of child endangerment or abuse, healthcare concerns, and more. Strong organizational skills enable social work professionals to keep each client’s information complete and easily accessible, which makes it possible to more efficiently and effectively connect individuals with the services they need.
Finally, a BSW degree can help students develop strong emotional intelligence. This enables social workers to cultivate an optimal level of empathy for their clients, which can foster a sense of trust. Emotional intelligence can also enable social workers to step away from their caseload when their workday is over. This form of self-care is becoming increasingly important in the social work field, as it protects professionals from experiencing burnout, which is an emerging and unfortunate trend.