What is it like to be a social worker?
Asked by Gemini
I have been thinking about going to school to become a social worker. The local community college here offers a two year associates degree to become a social worker. But I keep hearing that you need a bachelors degree to get hired anywhere as a social worker. Is this true? And also, what kind of starting salary would I have? What kind of jobs?

Best Answer:
I'm currently in my final year of study for a degree in Religious Studies. I'm currently applying to do a Masters in Social Work as it is something I have wanted to do for a few years and have decided the time is right to get trained! Initially I was going to go to my local college and get a qualification but having looked into job adverts I realised people generally want a degree or Masters. Social work is such a broad career title, I'm sure you have some idea of what you would like to do so the best thing to do is to look at job adverts on the internet and see what u like the look of! If you need a Masters/degree for it then you know what you have to do !!!! (the guardian website has a great job section in social work) Also social work is generally split into two sections Statutory and Voluntary. The first is basically government based work, meaning you get higher pay, greater job security etc BUT you also will have more paper work Voluntary is independent projects which have no government funding, generally meaning lower pay, less security etc but no external guidelines (and you wont ALWAYS have to have a degree/MA) , there is also less paper work. Many people find the paper work element of Social work as meaningless and a waste of time and therefore prefer this type of employment. I currently do part time work for a voluntary sector project mentoring a young offender I love it, its great experience but I will probably look into working for statutory once I have gained qualifications -BETTER MONEY !!! hope this helps

I pasted a link below for informational purposes. Hope this helps Happy Holiday's
Answered by B-Jo