The current status and future challenges of social work education in South Korea

Abstract

The growth in the number of social workers in the past six decades has been accompanied by a dramatic shift in social work education in South Korea. However, the quality of social work education was not fully considered. Thus, this chapter sets out the history and current status of social work education in South Korea, and discusses the contemporary challenges and the future of social work education in South Korea. First, current status and issues regarding academic programs, curricula, field education, and the social work licensure system are addressed. The challenges for social work education in South Korea are then discussed. The areas of accreditation reviews to verify each program, course development beyond the licensure examination, the improvement in the quality of field education, and efforts to improve social work competencies are all then examined.