Differentiering i det sociala arbetet. En studie av jobbannonser i arbetsfältet för socionomer

Social work as a profession is a discussed topic, in fact it is often considered to be a semi profession, because it is not that traditional compared to other professional groups. The work field of social work is very wide, with different types of work and where people with different educations are operating. Therefore, the aim of this study was to describe and analyze the qualifications required in job ads for social workers. In addition, the research aimed to describe the differentiation in relation to work field and principal of the organizations. The purpose of this essay was also to discuss the results in the perspective of social work as a profession. The study is based on a quantitative method and the analyzed material is gathered from the Swedish website Arbetsformedlingen.se, which is a jobseekers site with available job vacancies. The overall result shows that the mandatory demand for social work education and work experience appear in approximately fifty percent of the job ads, which is pretty low in the perspective of a profession. To be considered a classical profession, professionals within a certain work area should have monopoly within its work practice. A plausible interpretation of the result is that people with different kinds of educations can enter the work field of social work. The result also shows that there is a differentiation in the demand for qualification in different work fields and in private or public organization. Some work fields are high in some variables and low in other. Characteristic for private organizations are that they have a higher demand on qualities and experience in their job ads. The labor market for social workers also implies low career paths since there is not a high demand on further education and special qualities such as being familiar with a special work method