Developing specialists’ skills of in social sphere in the context of continuous education

Abstract

The article analyzes the impact of the transformation of professional activities of specialists working in the social sphere on the new approaches development to providing their continuous education. It is proved that continuous education is a professional improvement that is realized through specialists’ acquiring relevant competencies in the process of their development. It has been emphasized that there is a need for sociological support for the specialists' continuous education working in the social sphere, which includes the formation of competencies that develop a sociological imagination, the ability to construct social problems and ways to solve them in the field of social work. It has been found that sociological imagination plays a dual role in the practice of social work: on the one hand, it enables specialists to adequately perceive their professional role, to make aware of their functions following the new social reality, and on the other – to take into account the status features of different recipients of social services in an unstable social environment. The conceptual model of specialists' professional skill development working in the social sphere in the context of continuing education has been proposed. It considers the specific features of providing social and rehabilitation services in the conditions of decentralization of the social service system, and workers' training rendering social and rehabilitation services according to various programs, taking into account the peculiarities of social agencies and institutions. The paper presents the subject matter of classes contained in a curriculum developed by the authors’ educational program for conducting professional skill development courses for employees of territorial social service centres (provision of social services) and geriatric boarding houses in the Kharkiv region. The interconnection between the specialists' professional skills development working in the social sphere and the development of normative and legal, social, methodological, management, communicative and empathetic, conflictology and ethical competencies has been substantiated following the provisions of sociological imagination put forward by P. Sztompka.