Social Worker Skills as Observed from the Employment Market

Competencias laborales del trabajador social vistas desde el mercado laboral

The present article is a result of the investigation “Skills of social workers as observed from the employment market” conducted in the year 2004. The conceptual framework is also supported by the skills identified by the International Labour Organization (ILO); for this type of descriptive study, the technique used was a survey, conducted as structured interviews of direct supervisors of the Social Worker. The sample was conformed of 134 institutions with areas of intervention in health, labor, community development, family and minors, rehabilitation and education. The results presented here are aimed at providing knowledge of the general structure of each of these areas and describing the profile of the position, the basic competencies/skills, generic as well as specific. This work aspires to become a source of information needed to adapt professional training to the necessities of the employment market; to orient educative supply towards the fulfillment of expectations and results that companies are expecting from education.