The Teaching of Social Administration

Abstract

l ORMAL TEACHINTG of Social Administration began in P University courses established before the first world war 'for those X who wish to prepare themselves to engage in the many forms of social and charitable effort'.1 Since then, professional training for social work has developed inside and outside the Universities, and the original certificate3 courses have become to varying extents-an academic preparation for subsequent training. Social Administration teaching has developed within degree courses in which it may now be seen as the central feature of the students' education or as an optional appendage -a piece of 'applied sociology' or 'applied government', brought in for one year to illumine subjects of greater importance. The growth of these degree courses, and the admission to one-year certificate courses of increasing numbers of graduates from other fields, have obliterated many of the original two-year certiScates. Some Universities have abandoned social science certificates altogether, some have converted them into one-year courses for graduates only, and others still run both types of course or an uneasy combination of the two. A number are beginning to experiment with eighteen-month courses for graduates that will combine the 'social science qualification' 3 and a subsequent professional training. The Universities are becoming increasingly concerned about their two-part system of education for social workers: some do not regard the first part as a vocational qualification, others regard it as a qualification for nothing but further training, but all are aware that many students get social work jobs on the strength of this qualification alone. Meanwhile the employers of social workers are accepting the need for training and recognizing that Universities will never provide it on the scale or at the various standards required. New courses are being set up in technical colleges, and the Government's acceptance of the Younghusband Committee's proposals now offiers hope that a national system of training for social work will be established outside the Universities. 203