Social work education in Lithuania: struggling for professional identity Lithuania
LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Social work; Education; Professional identity.
ENSocial work education in Lithuania has reached the stage when it has a strong institutional foundation both for the professional training and social work practice. Eight social work programmes are provided by colleges and five Lithuanian universities offer Bachelor’s/ Master in social work programmes. Since 2015 only specialists who have Bachelor’s or Master’s degrees in social work may engage into social work practice. A big challenge for the profession is to develop its identity in the changing global, digital and mass media environment. It is important to work towards developing a more positive image of social work in mass media and society, and to pay more attention in social work studies to the development of competence to act as an advocate of human rights.Changes in Lithuanian society, such as rapid population aging, changing family structure, migration, transition from hierarchical to the market model of services organization, digitization of social live etc., raise new requirements for the content of social work study programmes and competences to be acquired. [lvb.lt]
