10 Competencies and 41 Practice Behaviors
Competency 1 - Identify as a professional social worker and conduct oneself accordingly.
Students will:
1. advocate for client access to the services of social work
2. practice personal reflection and self-correction to assure continual professional
development
3. attend to professional roles and boundaries
4. demonstrate professional demeanor in behavior, appearance, and communication
5. engage in career-long learning
6. use supervision and consultation
Competency 2 - Apply social work ethical principles to guide professional practice.
Students will:
7. recognize and manage personal values in a way that allows professional values to guide
practice
8. make ethical decisions by applying standards of the National Association of Social
Workers Code of Ethics and, as applicable, of the International Federation of Social
Workers/International Association of Schools of Social Work Ethics in Social Work,
Statement of Principles
9. tolerate ambiguity in resolving ethical conflicts
10. apply strategies of ethical reasoning to arrive at principled decisions
Competency 3 - Apply critical thinking to inform and communicate professional judgments.
Students will:
11. distinguish, appraise, and integrate multiple sources of knowledge, including research-
based knowledge, and practice wisdom
12. analyze models of assessment, prevention, intervention, and evaluation; and
13. demonstrate efective oral and written communication in working with individuals,
families, groups, organizations, communities, and colleagues
Competency 4 - Engage diversity and difference in practice.
Students will:
14. recognize the extent to which a culture's structures and values may oppress, marginalize,
alienate, or create or enhance privilege and power;
15. gain sufficient self-awareness to eliminate the influence of personal biases and values in
working with diverse groups;
16. recognize and communicate their understanding of the importance of difference in
shaping life experiences
17. view themselves as learners and engage those with whom they work as informants
Competency 5 - Advance human rights and social and economic justice.
Students will:
18. understand the forms and mechanisms of oppressiona nd discrimination
19. advocate for human rights and social and economic justice
20. engage in practices that advance social and economic justice
Competency 6 - Engage in research-informed practice and practice-informed research.
Students will:
21. use practice experience to inform scientific inquiry
22. use research evidence to inform practice
Competency 7 - Apply knowledge of human behavior and the social environment.
Students will:
23. utilize conceptual frameworks to guide the processes of assessment, intervention, and
evaluation
24. critique and apply knowledge to understand person and environment
Competency 8 - Engage in policy practice to advance social and economic well-being and to
deliver effective social work services.
Students will:
25. analyze, formulate, and advocate for policies that advance social well-being;
26. collaborate with colelagues and clietns for effectice policy action
Competency 9 - Respond to contexts that shape practice.
27. continuously discover, appraise, and attend to changing locales, populations, scientific
and technological developments, and emerging societal trends to provide relevant services
28. provide leadership in promoting sustainable changes in service delivery and practice to
improve the quality of social services
Competency 10 - Engage, assess, iontervene, and evaluate with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
Students will:
29. substantively and affectively prepare for action with individuals, familes, groups,
organizations, and communities
30. use empathy and other interpersonal skills
31. develop a mutually agreed-on focus of work and desired outcomes
32. collect, organize, and interpret client data
33. assess client strengths and limitations
34. develop mutually agreed-on intervention goals and objectives
35. select appropriate intervention strategies
36. initiate actions to achieve organizational goals
37. implement prevention interventions that enhance client capacities
38. help clients resolve problems
39. negotiate, mediate, and advocate for clients
40. facilitate transitions and endings
41. critically analyze, monitor, and evaluate interventions
