What is Social Work?
Social work is a practice-based profession that promotes social change, development, cohesion and the empowerment of people and communities. The social work practice involves the understanding of human development, behaviour and the social economic and cultural institutions and interactions. Social work is basically an aim to enhance overall well-being and help meet basic and complex needs of communities and people.
Few lines about Bachelor of Social Work (BSW)
The Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) is a professional 3-year undergraduate degree course that is divided into 6 semesters. The course aims to provide quality education in the area of social work. The course is specially meant for the people who are aiming at improving the quality of life of the poorest of the poor and understand the growing demand for professionally trained social workers across the country.
The course helps the students to acquire professional skills and develop capacity in helping people to solve various social and economic problems. The course also provides the required education and training on indigenous knowledge that helps the students to develop required attitudes in understanding people’s problem-solving interventions.
Eligibility for BSW
The students who have passed PUC or 10+2 in any stream with 50% aggregate marks from the recognised board are eligible to apply for the BSW course.
Admission Procedures
The eligible students can take admission to BSW course by two modes of admission. The first one is merit-based and second one is direct admission.
1. Merit Based Admission
There are many reputed colleges that conduct entrance exams for BSW course, such mode of admission is called merit-based admission. The entrance exams are conducted for the limited number of merit-seats available in colleges. The students have to qualify these entrance exams in order to get admission to merit-seats. The main reason for conducting entrance exams is to filter the serious students from the non-serious students. The fees are also nominal for merit- seats.
2. Direct Admission
The students can also get admission to the BSW course by another mode called direct admission. Under this mode the students can choose their desired colleges and take direct admission under management quota. The main benefit of this mode of admission is that the students are not required to appear for any entrance exams. Another advantage is that the students can take admission to their desired colleges even before the starting of the academic year by booking their seats in advance. The students interested in direct admissions can contact educational counselling centres for more details.
Course Curriculum
The students of BSW will be learning the following subjects in their course duration
| Sl. No. | Subjects of Study |
|---|---|
| 1 | Social Science Perspective for Social Work |
| 2 | Introduction to Social Work |
| 3 | Environmental Studies |
| 4 | Work with individual and families |
| 5 | Voluntary Action |
| 6 | Legal System in India |
| 7 | Constitution of India |
| 8 | Work with Groups |
| 9 | Human Growth and Development |
| 10 | Introduction to Rural, Urban and Tribal Communities |
| 11 | Computer Applications |
| 12 | Work with Communities |
| 13 | Administration and Correctional Services |
| 14 | Management of developmental and welfare services |
| 15 | Social work research |
| 16 | Social Problems and Social Development |
| 17 | Communication and Counselling |
| 18 | Women Empowerment |
| 19 | Social Work and Health Care |
| 20 | Social Policy Planning |
| 21 | Rehabilitation and after care services |
| 22 | Population Dynamics and Family Welfare |
| 23 | Social Change and Development |
| 24 | Organisation Behaviour and Development |
Career and Scope
Job opportunities are available in plenty for a graduate in bachelor of Social Work (BSW). They can work in NGOs, non-profit organisations, private, government agencies, etc. If interested in higher studies they can join the MSW course. If the students are interested in research then they can join a PhD programme and take up research in the field of social work. If they are interested in in-depth knowledge about the subject then they can join the M.Phil programme.
The BSW students after the completion of their master’s can join as lecturers in various colleges. They can apply for UGC-NET exams to become university professors after the completion of their master’s.
Job Roles
Some of the important job roles are:
- Social Worker
- Executive officer
- Human Development Manager
- Operations Manager
- Social Security officer
Salary and Emoluments
The fixed salaries depend upon the recruiters. Majority of the BSW students are provided with stipends by NGOs and non-profit organisations. They usually earn a salary/stipend that ranges from 3 lakhs to 4 lakhs per annum. The experienced professionals will be earning around 4 lakhs to 6 lakhs per annum. The salaries/stipends and emoluments depend upon the recruiters and location.
Top Organisations hiring BSW students
Some of the top organisations hiring BSW students are:
- Infosys Foundation
- Wipro Foundation
- Tata Foundation
- Reliance Foundation
- CRY
- HelpAge India
- Isha Foundation
- Art of Living
Concluding Words
The increase in participation by various organisations towards community development programmes has created ample job opportunities for all the BSW students. The BSW students are basically hired by nonprofit and philanthropic organisations for decent pay scales. The BSW students are responsible to act as the voice of the deprived community and ensure that their basic needs are fulfilled. The organisations under their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes take up lot of community centric initiatives, the BSW students are responsible to execute these initiatives effectively, so that it reaches all the people of deprived communities.
The students who have passion towards social work and interested in serving the society can join the BSW programme and have a satisfied living.