Bachelor’s degree in Social Work

The tasks involved in social work are highly varied and demanding. A degree in Social Work from the ZHAW opens up a range of options for starting your career. With a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work, you will be well equipped for the following roles: 

• Advising and guiding people of all ages in difficult life situations that are characterised by problems such as poverty, migration, disability, illness, addiction or abuse.
• Helping people deal with financial matters, find work and housing, or establish social networks.
• Creating work and leisure opportunities that strengthen communities and promote quality of life.
• Developing measures to combat exclusion and create public understanding of the situation socially disadvantaged people find themselves in.
• Representing the interests of individuals or groups when their voices are not being heard.

The Social Work degree programme prepares you for the diverse requirements of these roles and equips you with the skills to respond to the needs of people in difficult situations. You will learn to work in a solution-oriented way and reflect on your decisions. You will also develop your social and communication skills and learn how to build professional relationships with the people you support.

At the ZHAW, we offer a broad-based degree programme that prepares you for diverse fields of social work. This means that you do not have to limit yourself to one of the three traditional specialisms of social work, social pedagogy or socio-cultural animation, but instead acquire the professional and methodological foundations for all three. In addition, you choose a thematic focus and thus develop your individual profile. In order to support people in difficult situations and help them find solutions to their problems, you will acquire the following skills:

• Expertise: You will acquire knowledge of legal and ethical principles, history and theories in social work, socialisation processes and social research.
• Methodical skills: You will learn the methodological tools of social work, including case and field analysis, dialogue techniques, intervention and process structuring.
• Social skills: You will expand your skills in relationship-building and cooperation, social interaction and communication, conflict management, and dealing with diversity and heterogeneity.
• Independent skills: You will learn to acquire knowledge independently, to scrutinise it critically, to reflect on yourself and to deal with stressful situations.

Throughout your degree programme, you will receive tailored support from us to help you develop your skills in the best possible way. We help you to acquire important skills that are relevant in practice. We use a variety of teaching and learning methods to make your studies wide-ranging and practical.

• In case studies and methodology workshops, you will practise professional case analyses and the practical application of specialist knowledge and methods.
• In specialisation modules and seminars, you will visit social work institutions and experience first-hand how theoretical knowledge is applied in practice.
• Lecturers with practical experience will give you an insight into their work and provide you with practical examples.
• In supervision groups, you will reflect on your actions and receive feedback from experienced professionals.
• In learning and study groups, you will exchange ideas with fellow students and support each other. 
• Feedback from our professional study mentors will help you shape your development process actively and effectively.

We offer you sound, practical education so that you can apply what you have learned in your new job from day one. You will study proven theories and the latest research findings in order to strengthen your ability to take method-led action. In addition, your own professional experience will be systematically integrated.

Practical training makes up almost a third of your degree programme. It serves to develop your professional skills and prepares you optimally for working in this challenging field. As a ZHAW student, you have access to a large network of social organisations and receive support in choosing a suitable training place.

Internationality and interculturality are important parts of the curriculum for the bachelor’s degree course in social work. Alongside the specialisation module «Migration, integration, diversity», elective seminars on current international topics are offered every semester.