How to Develop Skills for the Future in the Social Work Field?

Our society is changing at a rapid pace and new challenges are emerging in adapting people to the age of digitalization and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This paper tries to answer the following questions: 1) How are the increasingly visible changes influenced by the economic crisis and the fourth industrial revolution (work 4.0) affecting the practice of social workers? 2) How will the work of social assistance be transformed, considering the predictions of current economic studies? Since the work of social workers takes place in a less predictable and routine relational environment, it has a low risk of automation, instead, the beneficiaries of social services will be directly affected and thus increase the impact of economic change and social services. Like social service recipients also social workers will need to acquire new skills and identify new ways to provide help (online communication, digitized services, etc.). The whole society will face the change of paradigm and the social workers will be also challenged to acquire the four meta-competencies mentioned by Mircea Miclea, as necessary to adapt to the reality of the future: design thinking, self-discipline, autonomy, and entrepreneurship. This article is based on a review of the literature and proposes the adaptation of the learning process and the supervision of the practice of students and social work professionals so that they can develop the skills and competencies necessary for a society of the future.


Keywords: skills of the future, meta-competencies, coaching, supervision, peer supervision