A MODEL CURRICULUM FOR OCCUPATIONAL SOCIAL-WORK

Social issues in the workplace are of increasing concern to social ser vices agencies, Corporate America, and organized labor. Increasing num bers of social workers are practicing in occupational and industrial s ettings, but the profession is still struggling with conceptualizing a nd implementing a curriculum that will prepare students for these care ers and, at the same time, will be consistent with social work values and ethics. Few U.S. schools of social work, however, offer courses in the area, and even fewer offer a concentration or a specialization in occupational social work. The University of Southern California Schoo l of Social Work was one of the pioneers; it has offered a concentrati on in industrial/ occupational social work since 1982. During the deca de of its existence, the faculty teaching in the concentration have de veloped a comprehensive model for teaching social work in work-related settings. The authors present a model curriculum for teaching occupat ional social work in a master's program from an ecosystems perspective with an integrated and coordinated approach. They provide a detailed description of the rationale for the program, its themes and objective s, and its application across six courses and the field practicum in o ccupational/industrial social work and then explore the program's util ity for second-year master's students.