Social Work - Bachelor Programme

The social worker education is a 3-year bachelor programme in general social work, which qualifies for working with different types of social problems and different groups of people. Social work is the term used for the academic field of study, as well as for the actual work carried out by social workers.

More than half of all social workers in Norway are employed by the municipal health and social services. Social workers may also work e.g. in county municipal institutions and organisations, in labour market services, social security services, family counselling, crime prevention, psychiatric health care, and in other public and also private sectors.

The curriculum guidelines for the Social Work Programme at Sogn og Fjordane University College are based on the National Curriculum laid down by the Ministry of Education and Research.

Bachelor of Social Work.

The objective of the training is to educate social workers who are reflected and who focus on the individual human being, and who at the same time are able to plan and organise relief measures in co-operation with the users and others involved in the process. A social worker should be qualified for working with preventing, solving or reducing social problems, and the client/user could be a local community as well as an organisation, a group, a family or an individual.

Social workers should have good knowledge of what causes social problems, and contribute towards solutions that encourage people to make use of their skills and ability to manage their own problems and make use of relevant aid programmes.

The primary ambition of the programme is that students should get the possibility to acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes based on high quality and relevant research, developmental work and field experience.

Secondly, it aims to offer a learning environment which supports the students’ involvement, participation and personal development in the various disciplines, as well as developing their ability to think and act on the basis of their own critical judgement.

A third ambition is to have close communication with people working in the field of social work, as well as with client organisations and researchers.

We believe in giving the students a general and solid theoretical background, combined with relevant practical training, which applies to the wide variety of challenges and contexts the students will encounter when they finish their education.

Completion of general upper-secondary education or prior learning and work experience.

The programme is interdisciplinary and combines traditional academic subjects with subjects related to the social work profession. A 16 weeks client-orientated work placement takes place in the autumn semester the 2nd year.

Teaching methods range from lectures in large auditoriums and teaching in classes, to group and individual tutoring, role-play, essay writing, project and practical training. The teaching language is Norwegian.

Through a short project period the first year the student will get to know various employment areas for social workers. The autumn semester the second year is dedicated to practical training. A 16 weeks client-orientated work placement in social institutions/-offices takes place in this period.

A part of the work placement period in the autumn semester 2nd year may be taken abroad. The student can apply for studying abroad the autumn semester 3rd year.

The student must have passed all the compulsory parts of the programme each year before taking any exam. The student must have passed the exams each year, before he/she starts the next year of study.

Examination range from a combination of portfolio assessment, paper, written and oral examination.

Most textbooks are in Norwegian. A few books may be in Danish, English or Swedish.
Ref. Norwegian version of the curriculum ("Pensum").

A part of the litterature is chosen by the student: 600 pages related to work placement 2 nd year and 400 pages related to the bachelor paper 3rd year.