The Current and Future Challenges of Social Work Practice Education: A Summarizing View Within a Global Approach

This final chapter regards and focuses on the current global challenges of social work practice education in the light of the new Global Standards of Social Work Education and Training approved by the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) and the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) in 2020. As a starting point, it presents the main outlines of this key reference document for social work education in different parts of the world. The heterogeneities of contexts and practice are so wide that identifying and converging towards a common core of social work education is a real challenge. The IASSW and the IFSW have tackled this complexity in their efforts to align worldwide social work education programs to a common core through the Global Standards of Social Work Education and Training. In this chapter, the standards are first extensively presented, especially regarding social work practice education, and then used to identify the most relevant trends of social work practice education and the challenges it needs to address. Within the framework of the Global Standards of Social Work, the chapter then collects and assembles the main results, findings and experiences from the SWooPEd research project and the previous chapters of this book. As a final chapter, it provides a brief overview of the main findings and the key learning points for current and future social work practice education. Accordingly, this chapter will create a concluding summary of the design of social work practice education along the Global Standards of Social Work Education and Training and the integration of innovative solutions and learning results that arise out of the pandemic. This synthesis can then be used to contribute to the further development of social work practice education.