Social Education and Child Welfare Work - Bachelor Programme

Child welfare education is a social work education specially directed towards taking care of children, youth and their parents who experience social or personal difficulties, or who are at risk of experiencing such difficulties. Child welfare is concerned with how to provide and organise for the improvement of child welfare and the upbringing of children in general.

The objective of the training is to educate child welfare 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.

Bachelor of Social education and Child welfare work.

Målgruppa er dei som har interesse for å jobbe med barn og unge som har det vanskelig, samt deira føresette.

The objective of the training is to educate child welfare 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.

Suitable careers may be found in e.g. the Municipal Health and Social Services, particularly as executive officers working with child welfare cases or foster homes, and as personal counsellors assigned to troubled or disadvantaged families. Child welfare workers also work e.g. in orphanages, in children’s and juvenile homes, with street-corner work, and in psychiatric institutions for children and juveniles, and in schools and pre-schools.

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 education and child welfare work profession. A 16 weeks client-oriented work placement takes place in the spring 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 educators and child welfare workers. The spring semester the second year is dedicated to practical traing. A 16 weeks client-oriented work placement in social institutions/-offices takes place in this period.

A part of the work placement may be taken abroad. The student can apply for studying abroad the autumn semester of the 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 and Swedish. A part of the litterature is chosen by the student: 600 pages related to work placement 2nd year and 400 pages related to the bachelor paper 3rd year.