People who want to impact the lives of others in a positive way often choose to earn their Master’s degree in social work. A career in social work will provide you with diverse options for employment, as social workers can work in a variety of areas.

If you are seeking out a Master’s program in social work, you will want to make sure that the program you choose is accredited. An accredited Master in Social Work program will require that you complete about 900 hours of fieldwork under supervision. Prior to completing the fieldwork, you will undergo a rigorous first year of coursework.

Having earned a Bachelor’s degree in a subject area unrelated to social work is not an issue when applying to a Master’s program, since there is no prerequisite for your undergraduate. On occasion, you will need to complete a statistics or biology course prior to entering into a social work graduate program. A statistics or biology course can both likely be found at a community college.

Volunteering prior to applying for your Master’s program will benefit you immensely, as volunteer experience can help to set you apart from other applicants. Applicants will also want to gather about three letters of recommendation, depending on the requirements for your specific program. Having a GPA of 3.0 or higher is generally required, though not always. Contact the institution from which you earned your Bachelor’s degree to obtain an official copy of your transcripts, as this will also be required.

Having your graduate degree in this field will give you the ability to work in many different environments. Some social workers are self-employed; others find work through larger organizations. A social worker can handle group situations or choose to interact solely with individuals. Always, a social worker is seeking to improve the circumstances of his or her clients, no matter what setting he or she chooses to work in.

People who invest in a graduate degree will be entering into a job market that is predicted to grow at a faster than average pace over the next 10 years. Since there are so many divisions within the world of social work, there may be a higher demand for professionals in certain areas than in others. Child and family school social workers will increase by about 10 percent in the next decade, whereas mental health and substance abuse social workers will increase by almost 20 percent, which illustrates the difference in demand in different fields within the profession. Read the rest of this entry »