Spheres of activity and competences of social - work mentors

A social - work mentor supervises the practical work carried out by a student and participates in improving practical studies. The mentor is a person who passes on his/her knowledge, skills, wisdom, and experience which are useful for the professional and personal improvement of the student. The mentor’s assistance is important in integrating theoretical knowledge of social work into the sphere of practical work. This complex aid requires certain competences; however, up until now the work carried out by the social-work mentor nor the competences needed have not been fully recorded. The problem studied in this paper is that no real discussion of the work of social-work mentors or their necessary competences has been produced. Therefore it is complicated to evaluate and compare the activities carried out by social-work mentors. The goal of this study is to define the sphere of work and competences of the social-work mentor. To achieve this goal, an analysis of scholarly literature, as well as of documents and qualitative material has been carried out. In a theoretical sense this study describes the concept of mentoring, as well as the role of mentors, their functions and competences. Furthermore, it also analyses the principles by which practical work is organized in social-work studies, emphasizing the mentor’s input. Once the research was carried out, the spheres of activity and competences of mentors in social work were established. Four supervisors of practice for social work took part in the research study; all had completed the Masters program in social work, had worked in social work in different organizations and, during the period of research, were supervising practical work. In addition, one lecturer in the Department of Social Work at Vytautas Magnus University who was a tutor for social-work practice also took part in the research study.[...]Socialinių mokslų fakultetasVytauto Didžiojo universiteta