Sociatjänsten som professionell destination : En intervjustudie om socionomstudenters inställning till socialtjänsten

Sammanfattning

The social services in Sweden currently face significant issues regarding recruitment and layoffs. A substantial portion of the public debate and media coverage casts a negative light on social services. The aim of this study is to examine the attitudes of future social workers towards social services as an employer. Furthermore, the study aims to investigate how social work students perceive and are influenced by both public perceptions and negative media coverage. This study is based on semi-structured interviews with six social work students in their seventh semester at Malmö University. Social interactionism is used as the theoretical framework for analyzing the collected data material. The data has been analyzed using thematic analysis. The results indicate that the majority of social work students hold a negative view of social services as a future employer. They also perceive public attitudes as primarily negative, with the negative media reporting having a significant role in shaping these negative perceptions of the social services. The results further demonstrate that social work students have adapted various behaviors to cope with the public attitudes both privately and professionally. A key finding is that social work students' prior experiences and associations with social services strongly influence their prospective choice of employer. The findings of this study show that social work students experience prejudice and a lack of understanding for their occupation. This perception is embedded in the public's ignorance and the media's negative coverage. The results suggest a need for increased awareness about the profession's nature and complexity among the general public.