A Model Curriculum for Occupational Social Work

Abstract

Social issues in the workplace are of increasing concern to social services agencies, Corporate America, and organized labor. Increasing numbers of social workers are practicing in occupational and industrial settings, but the profession is still struggling with conceptualizing and implementing a curriculum that will prepare students for these careers and, at the same time, will be consistent with social work values and ethics. Few U.S. schools of social work, however, offer courses in the area, and even fewer offer a concentration or a specialization in occupational social work. The University of Southern California School of Social Work was one of the pioneers; it has offered a concentration in industrial/ occupational social work since 1982. During the decade of its existence, the faculty teaching in the concentration have developed a comprehensive model for teaching social work in work-related settings. The authors present a model curriculum for teaching occupational social work in a master’s program from an ecosystems perspective with an integrated and coordinated approach. They provide a detailed description of the rationale for the program, its themes and objectives, and its application across six courses and the field practicum in occupational/industrial social work and then explore the program’s utility for second-year master’s students.