Defining Criteria on Professional Suitability for Social Work Practice

Social work educators are responsible for ensuring that social work students demonstrate the required practice competencies before they graduate and enter the profession. However, the lack of concrete criteria for evaluating student suitability poses challenges to social work educators. This article reports the results from a questionnaire survey mailed to BSW field instructors asking them to define criteria for professional suitability in social work. Of the 190 questionnaires that were returned, 142 contained qualitative responses defining criteria for professional suitability. Emerging from these responses were five categories consisting of 30 items defining professional suitability. They were personal suitability, practice suitability, ethical suitability, interpersonal suitability, and social consciousness suitability. Implications for social work education and future research are discussed.