Vad kan socionomer? Något om förväntningarna på socionomers kunskaper och yrkeskompetens

The purpose of this article was to examine the complexity of the expectations on the skills of Swedish social workers. Examples of the view on qualifications of social workers were chosen among ideas on competency in social work education programs and in the legislation. Legislation, reports from the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education and research on the social work education programs and on the conditions of social work in welfare offices were examined. The result of study shows that the Swedish higher education programs in social work carries a number of specialist knowledge, among which the most prominent should be interdisciplinary understanding and handling of social problems. There are seemingly however no consensus on the specific content of a Bachelor of Science in Social Work among neither students, teachers or higher education programs. Since there are higher education programs on social work at sixteen different Swedish universities and university collages, the lack of consensus means employers have no way of knowing the specific skills of a recently graduated social worker, unless the specific program in question are studied in detail. According to this article, many social workers in their daily practices need to be able to handle conflict of interests and ethical dilemmas. Social workers therefore need skills in interdisciplinary creative and critical thinking in complex social situations. Also, the legislation partly is characterized by ambiguity and contradictions. In many situations, social workers are bound to apply vague frame law and weigh incommensurable conflicting interests simultaneously as achieving legal security by administrating the law predictable and uniform