Social Work

The social work degree qualifies you for a very complex and highly specialised field of occupational profiles, target groups and fields of practice.

As a social worker in the Federal Republic of Germany, you are primarily employed by public and independent institutions. Public agencies are institutions that work under the responsibility of the state - the municipalities, the Länder or the federal government: primarily youth welfare offices, social welfare offices and health offices, but also employment offices, judicial institutions or schools. Independent organisations are private and mostly non-profit organisations. The most important and largest employers are the welfare associations: e.g. Arbeiterwohlfahrt (AWO), Paritätische Wohlfahrtsverband (DPWV), Caritas, Diakonisches Werk or the German Red Cross. However, independent organisations also include youth associations or smaller and local associations and initiatives.

With a successfully completed degree in social work and the state recognition obtained in the process, a wide range of fields of activity are open to you. These include, for example, child and youth welfare, adult education or work with mentally disabled people. Social workers can work both operationally and conceptually. Possible institutions and companies you can join are, for example:

• Public institutions and offices
• Further education institutions
• Social associations
• Medical institutions
• Psychiatric institutions
• Schools

Increasingly, you will also be employed by companies in the private sector. Here, for example, you will work in the field of personnel development and organisational counselling. You can also become self-employed in areas such as psychosocial counselling, personal coaching or mediation. Your typical fields of work include:

• Child and youth welfare, help with upbringing
• Social services (for example, in clinical and rehabilitative areas)
• Social planning, social management
• Offender assistance
• Women's promotion, women's education, women's counselling
• Help for the elderly
• Social work with foreigners, refugees
• Help for the disabled
• Addiction counselling
• Vocational preparation or support for integration into the labour market