Less than 10 percent of social workers are adequately trained, accordingto a nationwide survey conducted by the Ministry of Labour, Invalidsand Social Affairs (MOLISA) across 41 cities and provinces.
The survey, which collected information from over 60,000 peopleengaged in social work, also revealed that nearly half of them weretrained workers, of which 19 per cent had received professional trainingin related areas such as sociology or psychology.
The survey comes as demand for social workers has surged with a dramatic shortage of workers in the field.
Nguyen Van Hoi, deputy head of the Department for Social Protection,told Giao duc va Thoi dai (Education and Times) newspaper thatapproximately 40 percent of the Vietnamese population needed social workservices.
These people include 7.5 million elderlypeople, 5.4 million disabled people, 1.4 million underprivilegedchildren, 180,000 people living with HIV and nearly 200,000 drugaddicts, he said.
According to MOLISA, only 32 outof the 63 provinces and cities nationwide had social work centres, withthe country planning to roll out more centres in remaining localities by2015.
Pham Thi Thanh Tam, director of REACHcentre, a local non-government organisation specialising in developmentactivities, said none of the centre's staff had professionalqualifications in social work.
She said the centrehad had to organise internal training programmes for their employees,realising the lack of prior knowledge among its staff.
A lack of understanding of professional qualifications in specificfields made it difficult to recruit qualified social workers.
Tam urged that more schools specialising in social work training beset up, and said that more educational institutes needed to establishprogrammes to fill the skills shortage, adding that social workers coulddevelop valuable knowledge on community development and projectmanagement skills.
Perception problem
Despite the fact that the demand for social workers has remained high,students trained in social services have shown little interest inactually pursuing careers in the field.
One of thereasons, according to Do Bich Thao, lecturer of the Faculty of SocialWork at Hanoi National University of Education, is that students whosemajors are related to social situations are taught to attain generalknowledge about social work rather than to really apply what they learnto practical situations.
"There are still someshortcomings in social work training created by theory-orientedcurriculums, a shortage of lecturers with practical experience andlimited opportunities for applying knowledge," she added.
Additionally, students with relevant majors deliberately chose othercareers with higher levels of perceived prestige. Experts say that thiscan be traced back to the lack of community understanding towards socialwork.
"Many people still do not know that socialworkers do. Some even think they do charity work," said Vu Thi Kim Dung,head of the Social Work Faculty at Hanoi National University ofEducation.
Presently, there is no specific agencyresponsible for issuing certificates and organising certificate testsfor social workers.
Le Chi An, a lecturer from theHo Chi Minh City Open University suggested an association for socialworkers was needed to provide practical experience for those who wantedto devote their career to social work.-VNA
The survey, which collected information from over 60,000 peopleengaged in social work, also revealed that nearly half of them weretrained workers, of which 19 per cent had received professional trainingin related areas such as sociology or psychology.
The survey comes as demand for social workers has surged with a dramatic shortage of workers in the field.
Nguyen Van Hoi, deputy head of the Department for Social Protection,told Giao duc va Thoi dai (Education and Times) newspaper thatapproximately 40 percent of the Vietnamese population needed social workservices.
These people include 7.5 million elderlypeople, 5.4 million disabled people, 1.4 million underprivilegedchildren, 180,000 people living with HIV and nearly 200,000 drugaddicts, he said.
According to MOLISA, only 32 outof the 63 provinces and cities nationwide had social work centres, withthe country planning to roll out more centres in remaining localities by2015.
Pham Thi Thanh Tam, director of REACHcentre, a local non-government organisation specialising in developmentactivities, said none of the centre's staff had professionalqualifications in social work.
She said the centrehad had to organise internal training programmes for their employees,realising the lack of prior knowledge among its staff.
A lack of understanding of professional qualifications in specificfields made it difficult to recruit qualified social workers.
Tam urged that more schools specialising in social work training beset up, and said that more educational institutes needed to establishprogrammes to fill the skills shortage, adding that social workers coulddevelop valuable knowledge on community development and projectmanagement skills.
Perception problem
Despite the fact that the demand for social workers has remained high,students trained in social services have shown little interest inactually pursuing careers in the field.
One of thereasons, according to Do Bich Thao, lecturer of the Faculty of SocialWork at Hanoi National University of Education, is that students whosemajors are related to social situations are taught to attain generalknowledge about social work rather than to really apply what they learnto practical situations.
"There are still someshortcomings in social work training created by theory-orientedcurriculums, a shortage of lecturers with practical experience andlimited opportunities for applying knowledge," she added.
Additionally, students with relevant majors deliberately chose othercareers with higher levels of perceived prestige. Experts say that thiscan be traced back to the lack of community understanding towards socialwork.
"Many people still do not know that socialworkers do. Some even think they do charity work," said Vu Thi Kim Dung,head of the Social Work Faculty at Hanoi National University ofEducation.
Presently, there is no specific agencyresponsible for issuing certificates and organising certificate testsfor social workers.
Le Chi An, a lecturer from theHo Chi Minh City Open University suggested an association for socialworkers was needed to provide practical experience for those who wantedto devote their career to social work.-VNA
