Factors undermining social workers' attempts at furthering their studies in Driekop, Limpopo Province, South Africa

Abstract

This paper examines factors militating against social workers’ endeavours to undertake postgraduate studies. The model of Maintaining Professional Competence was considered to guide the study with a sample of ten (10) participants who were all interviewed face-to-face in Driekop (Sekhukhune District), Limpopo Province (RSA). An interview guide was utilised in the foregoing. Content Thematic Analysis was used to make sense of the findings. The findings indicate that social workers’ aspirations to improve their qualifications are hampered by the following impediments: heavy workloads and family commitments; financial constraints due to meagre remuneration; lack of motivation and poor prestige of the profession fueled by little or no consideration of postgraduate qualifications by employers; and poor reading habits and lack of information on postgraduate sponsors. Despite the aforementioned barriers, social workers acknowledged the value of postgraduate education in their lives. Given these findings, the researcher recommends that: • Postgraduate qualifications in social work need to be incentivised. • Social work salaries need to be improved/commensurate with qualifications, and competitive incentives provided as well. • Social workers’ heavy workloads need to be reviewed. • Social workers need to make efforts to inculcate reading habits amongst themselves. • Social workers must strive to balance work and family commitments to make time for further studies. • Social workers as well as their employers should seek or source scholarships for post-graduate studies.