title: Does social work education make a difference?
abstract: To test the hypothesis that state employees with social work education are better prepared for social work positions than are their colleagues without such education, data were collected in five areas, using different instruments and approaches. The data sets were scores on state merit tests for family service workers, employees' quality assurance scores, ratings of employees from supervisors, measures of employees' commitment to social work values, and measures of employees' confidence in their educational preparedness. Overall, employees with social work degrees, either bachelor's or master's, were better prepared than were those without social work degrees.
authors.affiliation: College of Social Work, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40506-0027.
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Dhooper
authors.forename: D D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Royse
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Wolfe
mesh_terms: D004522:Educational Status; D004650:Employee Performance Appraisal; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D007629:Kentucky; D011361:Professional Competence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012945:Social Values; D012946:Social Welfare; D012947:Social Work / Q000193:education*