Training social workers in personal finance
The rising financial crisis has left many American families more stressed as most of them are unable to survive at $ 2000 per month. A study revealed that many families are finding it hard to pay bills and credit cards. Also, it is estimated that low-income earners are at higher risk of experiencing financial strain more than top income earners.
Finance social work is a plan to help a client increase their financial and economic capacity through advocacy, policymaking, and research. On the other hand, financial counseling is the ability to educate families on principles of saving and how to avoid bad debt. Institutions have started offering commercial related courses.
The purpose of the study is to show how the inclusion of finance-related courses to social work degree may help to address financial issues faced by families. They wanted to answer the following questions.
- How personal finance crisis faced by social workers can be used in educating social work students
- How experienced finance social workers can help other social workers in confronting financial challenges
Table I shows the demographic characteristic of participants as shown below
75 % were female
25% were male
There was 2 % representation of high school diploma
13% associate degree
27 % of bachelor’s degrees holder
56 % master’s degree
2% doctorate
From the above statistics, most of the participants were young people who did not have much experience with finance, social work.
Tables 2 and 3 give a summary of anticipated changes of those who completed the financial program.
48% believed that they had gained new skills in helping the clients solve their problems
26% reported that they could assess the client’s needs
15% increased their knowledge of finance
12% gained their confidence in addressing the topic of finance.
From this information, we can learn that few people gained their confidence to address financial issues even after the training. The number of people who can assess the client’s needs is not satisfying.
In conclusion, many social workers are interested in learning about finance. Those who are majorly involved in the topic are young people who have no much experience. The number of people who are confident in addressing the financial crisis is still low. It is worth noting that at least 48% gained new skills in addressing the financial crisis.