POSTED BY MUSA FATIU NALLAH AKA FEMZEE
FROM UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN


#1 Director of Corporate Social Responsibility
Average Salary: $93,400
Social work has evolved from a profession focusing on people living in poverty to one associated with governmental programming to one offering counseling and health-related services in nonprofit and private-practice settings. But now there is an emerging trend: Social workers are moving into corporate America. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects nearly a 20 percent growth in social work jobs by 2022, with many of them in the private sector outside of what used to be the “normal” social worker’s environment. Today’s worker expects corporations to be socially responsible. People are no longer just looking for a product or service. They also pay attention to how companies contribute to the greater good in society and in their employees’ lives. Communities expect corporations to give back in some way, and thus corporate social responsibility helps companies be successful.

#2 Professor of Social Work
Average Salary: $84,919
A professor’s primary role involves teaching courses in the area of social work. The job often includes a combination of teaching and research. Most universities require scholarship, and they define that by their own standards. In Tier One schools, you will find that this involves a greater emphasis on grants, research, and publication. Other programs are more liberal in their definition of scholarship. Professors develop and design curriculum plans to foster student learning, stimulate class discussions, and ensure student engagement. They also provide tutoring and academic counseling to students; maintain classes related records; and assesses student coursework. Service to the community, a key aspect of the job, involves more than engaging with students through lectures or office hours. Faculty members are asked to serve on various department and university committees to improve the curriculum or to address other concerns of the university. Student development and discipline, faculty governance, and the development of new programs are just a few of the many examples of these types of service-oriented activities.

#3 Employee Assistance Program Counselor
Average Salary: $68,895
One of the better known roles for social workers in corporate settings is that of counselor in an employee assistance program. Imagine if you owned a business and you had an employee who had been trained on human behavior, communication and conflict resolution? What if this employee also knows about diversity and organizational structure, as well as the skills needed for invested listening and relationship building? And what if this employee had a background in providing mental health services related to substance abuse, depression, anxiety and grief and loss? How could this employee contribute to the success of your business? As social workers can address issues that employees may encounter such as depression, substance abuse and family issues, they are a logical choice as employees in this capacity.

#4 Veteran’s Affairs Social Worker
Average Salary: $69,454
The 2014 Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Service members compared service members to the general population and found that the rate of major depression is five times higher among soldiers, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is nearly 15 times as high, and intermittent explosive disorder is six times as high. VA social workers are responsible for ensuring continuity of care through the admission, evaluation, treatment, and follow-up processes. This includes coordinating discharge planning and providing case management services based on the patients clinical and community health and social services resources. Social workers often provide long-term case management services to veterans who are at high risk of being admitted to a hospital, those who have very complex medical problems, and those who need additional help and support. They are available when needed to provide and coordinate a variety of services including counseling and support services. Social workers can advocate and go to bat for those who have a hard time doing it by themselves.


#5 Executive Director of a Non Profit Organization

Average Salary: $64,260
Job Outlook: Very good (16% growth rate within the next decade)

While in recent years there has been a shift away from experienced social workers as administrators of social service agencies, in favor of administrators with business training or experience, the perspectives gained by working as a direct service practitioner provide the administrator with an invaluable base for responsive and effective agency leadership. Think of an executive director of a non-profit organization as being the “jack of all trades and master of all.” At any given moment, an executive director needs to change hats according to the direct needs of the organization. The Executive Director is hired and supervised by and reports directly to the Board of Directors. Working closely with the Board, the director is responsible for implementing strategic goals and objectives of the organization, supporting the board in fulfilling its governance functions and to provide leadership toward fulfilling the organization’s mission and annual goals and objectives.

#6 Social Science Researcher

Average Salary: $63,561

Social work research informs professional practice. Through social work research, the profession can: assess the needs and resources of people in their environments; evaluate the effectiveness of social work services in meeting peoples needs; demonstrate relative costs and benefits of social work services; advance professional education in light of changing contexts for practice; and understand the impact of legislation and social policy on the clients and communities we serve. Research is a critical tool for all social workers. There is great need for hard data and quantifiable information in every area of social work including homelessness, domestic violence, recidivism, and mental health, to name just a few.


#7 Director of Development of a NPO
Average Salary: $62,879

While not all non-profit organizations have professional fund-raising officers on staff, any organization that counts on contributed income to provide a substantial portion of its budget should have a professional development director. In small organizations, the development director could conceivably be a volunteer. However, the important thing is that within even the smallest of non-profits, someone is given as his or her primary organization responsibility the coordination and implementation of contributed income programs. A development director’s principal charge is to create numerous, efficient, and compelling opportunities for donors to support an organization and to make the experience of giving satisfying and rewarding. It is not a good idea for an organization’s executive director to also fill the role of development director. If the organization has a valid mission, the executive director has a full-time role to play in coordinating and carrying out that mission.


#8 Housing & Community Development Director
Average Salary: $60,955

A current trend in social services, backed by research and data on housing retention among poor and homeless populations, is the “housing-first” model. A large amount of federal, state, and private grant money has been made available in the past 10-15 years to support this endeavor within communities. The main idea in the housing-first model is that providing free or low-cost permanent, supportive housing to chronically homeless individuals is the best first step on the road to recovery. It enables folks to get their personal priorities and needs in order by having a home base from which to operate. Rather than first making individuals jump through hoops like substance abuse recovery programs and job training programs in order to gain housing, individuals are first placed into housing with the idea that these things will follow. It has also proven to lower the strain on a community’s emergency services when these individuals are not on the streets, making it a win-win for everyone involved.

#9 LCSW with Spanish Language Skills
Average Salary: $60,148
The Licensed Clinical Social Worker or LCSW, is a sub-sector within the field of Social Work. LCSW’s work with clients in order to help deal with issues involving mental and emotional health. There are a wide variety of specializations the Licensed Clinical Social Worker can focus on. These include specialties such as: working with mental health issues, substance abuse, public health, school social work, medical social work, marriage counseling or children and family therapy. Some may choose to work purely in a research, policy making or administrative capacity. The possible career paths as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker are many and varied. Those LCSW-licensed therapists who are fluent in Spanish enjoy an advantage in both pay and work opportunities relative to therapists without that ability. Because Latinos have a relatively high percentage of those experiencing poverty, Spanish language skills enable assistance within a population that needs the help.

#10 Medical Discharge Planner
Average Salary: $58,631
Discharge planning for social workers is one of the most vital facets in the practice of healthcare and mental health case management. The exact areas and fields that constitute discharge planning still remain debatable. These are also dependent upon the setting, in most cases. In a broader setting, the process involves linking patients and their close family members with vital resources that are outside of the present healthcare setting as a means of offering follow-up healthcare services. Discharge planning, which is a vital part of case management in social work/services, can also be defined as a process where a patient receives assistance in developing a healthcare plan to make sure that he receives ongoing healthcare maintenance even after being discharged from the hospital. It is also called “continuity of care” and aims to offer services that can help a patient become more independent despite his illness.

Discharge planners fulfill roles and responsibilities that are extremely useful in improving the general welfare and well-being of patients.A good discharge planner is also someone who is skillful in performing more accurate assessments, conscious of different community resources, well-organized and has excellent communication skills. The field also requires other professionals that offer patient care services to be involved in implementing the process. This can include physical and occupational therapy, utilization review, speech therapy and nursing. The discharge plan developed for patients is a hospital-wide plan which involves not only the patient but his immediate family members, doctor, nurse, social worker, dietitian, pharmacist and others involved in his case. Discharge planning for social workers also works by initiating, coordinating and facilitating all efforts designed to improve the health of individuals.

#11 Program Evaluator


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Average Salary: $57,209
Job Outlook: Very good (16% growth rate within the next decade)

In the current job market, there is a high concern about efficiency and productivity to capitalize on human and financial resources. In the social services sector this is also true, although the desired result is to be able to provide better services to larger segments of the community. In an effort to achieve this goal, the position of program evaluator offers a career path that helps to monitor results of intervention and treatment plans. The job of program evaluator is not only one of the expanding opportunities in many social work sectors, but also ensures that services can continue to offer community care and employment. As a program evaluator, a large amount of work will be performed in an office setting. This will include a review of reports and status updates that are compared to the expected goals of a public health initiative. You will also need to generate your own documentation of the changes that you observe and suggest any possible changes that can streamline the structure and process of community programs.

The employment rate in the social work industry is above the national average, and this offers good job security as well as highly competitive wages. Evaluating services on an individual agency level can be empowering to service recipients and service providers and help to bring accountability to agencies. Program evaluations can help individual agencies identify problems within worker-client involvement, understand and improve services, provide a framework for the achievements of the workers, and being accountable. External and internal evaluations can help to focus on the appropriateness of social service agencies’ decisions, rather than just focusing on the compliance with regulations and laws. Some evaluators have only a bachelor’s degree with no special training. Yet some evaluations utilize Ph.D.’s from a specialized training program.

#12 School Social Worker w/ Spanish Language Skills


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Average Salary: $55,809
Job Outlook: Good (11% growth rate within the next decade)

The professional mission of school social worker is to help parents with their family concerns, students with their personal issues, and teachers with their instruction. The school social worker helps by listening closely to students and adults who may have experienced very troubling circumstances at home or in school. The work of the school social worker also includes policy and program development. The school social worker is professionally prepared to understand and respond to the many problems which people may have. These problems are typically related to life experiences that were or are emotionally very hurtful events. Intensely-felt guilt, shame, embarrassment, frustration, or anger can lead anyone to intensely-felt emotions of insecurity, fearfulness, depression, helplessness, hopelessness, or even futurelessness. These feelings and emotional states within school children can be expressed in a variety of ways that interfere with learning and cause inappropriate behavior in school. Such children may appear to be very active, highly distracted or impulsive.

Students rebuild their self-worth, self-control, and self-confidence by speaking with the school social worker. With unique clinical expertise, the school social worker provides the type of counseling that helps students feel trust, hope, and empathy while learning coping skills. Such counseling will yield students who have deeper awareness of their own feelings and those of other’s to feel emotionally secure and safe at school. It is common for the school social worker arriving at the office, to find a teacher or parent waiting to consult without an appointment. Appointments have a way of expanding beyond the limited time scheduled which requires the school social worker to decide if and when to schedule a follow-up appointment. At departmental or faculty meetings, the school social worker reaffirms the advocacy role to improve the school’s responsiveness to parent, student and teacher needs. The school social worker must be able to speak persuasively to gain the staff’s and administration’s support.The role of the school social worker is also to establish a working relationship between school and family. This, at times, requires conflict resolutions skills and the ability to promote open communication among student, parent and educator.

#13 Clinical Coordinator


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Average Salary: $55,619
Job Outlook: Excellent (20% growth rate within the next decade)

Clinical coordinators are responsible for organizing and overseeing the administrative aspects of a social service agencies’ clinical staff. They work in hospitals, clinics, academic medical programs, and other patient care environments. Among their daily duties, a clinical coordinator may plan budgets, oversee personnel hiring and training, schedule staff, manage supplies and inventory, and create and evaluate long-term programs and strategy for a department. They may also ensure compliance with legal and accreditation standards, oversee staff training and career development programs, evaluate effectiveness of patient care, and review staff performance. In an academic program, clinical coordinators may be responsible for overseeing student progress. The work is generally done indoors in a clinical and/or office environment. It is a management position that requires supervisory skill in prioritizing needs and scheduling the daily activities of potentially large numbers of people.

I hope this thing should be brought to the front page of Nairaland.
Some people don't know what social work entails.