Analysis of the Formation of Personal and Professional Qualities of Future Social Workers for Street Social Work

Abstract

The paper presents the diagnostics of the state of formation of personal and professional qualities of future social workers being able to carry out street social work. While undergoing the study, it has been found that the professional readiness of street social work specialists involves the formation of such a level of professional skills and competence of future social workers that will allow them to perform the various functions of street social work successfully. Interpersonal interaction with clients of street social work provides for the presence of such specialists’ traits as: empathy, compromise and speed of thinking, diplomacy in relations with others, optimism in perception of reality, communicativeness, sociability, high mental capacity, comprehensiveness of interests, mood stability, independence, initiative and business orientation in professional activity. To study the state of formation of the listed qualities of future social workers, we conducted a diagnostic study among students of second-fifth years-of-study of specialty “Social work” of Khmelnitsky National University. Diagnostic results show that the majority of future social workers, while studying in higher educational institution, have sufficiently low indicators of formation of both personal and professional qualities. They are diagnosed with low levels of business orientation and professional motivation for street social work, as well as low level of manifestation of diplomacy, pessimism in the perception of reality, rigid thinking, low mental capacity, changeability of interests, multilevel of mood, dependency, lack of initiative. Therefore, we propose to develop and introduce psychological-pedagogical and social-pedagogical conditions (for the formation of future social workers' professional readiness for street social work) into the educational process.