A descriptive study of university-level models for educating future child welfare professionals

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine new university-level programs that educate students for child welfare practice. Though the education of future child welfare professionals in the United States has been... [ view full abstract ]

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine new university-level programs that educate students for child welfare practice. Though the education of future child welfare professionals in the United States has been dominated by the social work degree and accompanying child welfare certificates, new degrees and certificates are emerging. In response to this new trend, several types of educational programs were selected and reviewed.

Method: In order to produce descriptive profiles, two researchers reviewed the university websites of child welfare-related educational programs, analyzed the content available for each program, and produced a matrix of program characteristics. These characteristics were then compared to the traditional social work degree.

Results: The review yielded the following four categories of programs: a full degree program focused on child welfare, a full degree program focused on child advocacy, a certificate program focused on child advocacy, and a certificate program focused on international child protection. While the traditional social work degree provides a foundation in general knowledge and skills with a supplemental certificate in child welfare, the degree programs in the first two categories provide a foundation in child welfare/child advocacy with skills integrated into the courses. The last two categories involved certificate programs that were very similar to the child welfare certificate offered by social work programs. Most of the programs fell within the middle two categories (full degrees or certificates focused on child advocacy) and followed the Gunderson National Child Protection Training Center model.

Conclusions: These results provide the field with an array of new educational models for exploration. Further research is needed to identify the outcomes of these programs and the ideal combination of courses. As the child welfare field is highly dependent on the knowledge and skills of the workforce, this line of inquiry is paramount.