How many years of college do you need to complete to become a social worker?
I'm a sophomore in high school and I am interested in becoming a social worker because I want to work with children and give back. Do you need to get your bachelor's and your master's or just your bachelor's? Also what is it like to be a social worker? #social-work #high-school #social-worker #sophomore
3 answers
Angela Chan
Angela’s Answer
I agree with all the comments by others. Here is my example - I earned my BSW in 4 years and then went to work in two half-time positions. I worked in San Francisco Unified School District as a Peer Resource Leader, teaching 2 elective classes and running lunch time groups for middle school students, and coordinated an after school program and summer program for YMCA in Chinatown, San Francisco. I left for a full-time job in job training for at-risk youth in Oakland. After 5 years of direct service, I returned to earn my MSW. I worked full-time and went to graduate school part-time since I couldn't financing afford to stop working to return to school full-time. I completed my MSW in 2 years.
I was promoted from working in direct service to developing and managing programs, staff and budgets. From there, I worked in other settings and jobs and am currently managing a neighborhood center in a local city. I still interact with youth and families, it's just not my primary job. I supervise staff who do the direct service work and focus my time on program & partnership development, fund raising, and interacting with executive leadership team.
Hope this helps,
angela
Yolonda’s Answer
I agree with the comment above. You can get a lot of case manager positions with your Bachelors. If you want to become a clinician, director, etc. it would be best to get your Masters. With a Bachelors in Social Work (BSW) you can qualify for an accelerated 1 year Masters in Social Work program. To truly know what it is like to be a social worker, I would advise you to get experience in the field whether it is volunteer or paid.
Wael’s Answer
You can work after your bachelor in select positions. The master open up more positions. The link below will help you out.
http://study.com/how_do_i_become_a_social_worker.html