Employment opportunities of social workers in Turkey: Challenges and opportunities areas

Aim: The aim of this study is to describe the employment problem in the field of social work by using the opinions of social workers, students and academicians working in the field, and to evaluate possible solutions and opportunities. Material and method: This study is a qualitative study of the phenomenological type with the purpose of description. The data were collected through in-depth interviews with 10 occupational staff, 4 Social Work Department undergraduate students, 5 graduate students and 5 academicians until they reached saturation point with snowball sampling method. It was examined and interpreted by means of Maxqda12 Program and by inductive thematic analysis. Results: According to the participants, the reason why social workers cannot find a job is the uncontrolled increase in the number of Social Work Departments and graduates. In addition, experts primarily want to work in public institutions and organizations, because of adverse working conditions in the private sector or non-governmental organizations do not want to work. They compete with other occupational groups that have unemployment problems in order to be appointed as "social workers" in public institutions. Social workers graduate without gaining the entrepreneurial ability, knowledge and skills to be present in the fields that have not yet been studied. Conclusion: It can be said that the problem of employment experienced in the field of social work stems from the increasing number of graduates and the desire of graduates to work in state institutions. There is a need to increase professional recognition, to create new working areas in private sector and non-governmental organizations and to control the number of graduates. Keywords:Social work,Unemployment,Youth unemployment, Employment, Career.