Free Social Work Classes

Internet Social Worker Courses Online

Social work classes prepare a person for social work among the disadvantaged members of society. This takes a person among the quite young and the old. A social worker is likely to deal with abused children and spouses, the destitute and homeless, and those whose lives have been complicated or destroyed by drugs and addiction.

To be able to interact with people with these experiences and in these environments, a social worker has to know the underlying causes of social problems and have training in how to approach people in each of these circumstances. The following list of distance learning courses are just some of the social work topics you can study online for free at OpenCourseWare websites like MIT offers and distance learn college sites like Open University provides.

Children and Violence explores the developmental issues involved when children are exposed to violence. This introductory course studies a broad, international range of violent settings, including everything from civil wars in Africa to school bullying in the United States. What happens when a child has a violent upbringing? That's the question at the center of this interdisciplinary class.

Children's Rights teaches social work students to look at children in a different way than they're used to. People tend to view a child as a young person, a dependent, or a student, but this course teaches you to look at kids as citizens. You'll explore practical subjects like a child's needs and more philosophical topics like the meaning of childhood itself, but the main focus of this free online college course is to educate students where a child fits in society, especially in a legal context.

Working with Young People discusses the roles people take when they work with youths, the kind of relationships formed between children and the adults they interact with, the values a social worker brings to their job, and the big picture involving public and private organizations which work in children's lives.

Poverty, Public Policy and Controversy takes a look at the issue of poverty. Questions asked include the definition of poverty, how "being poor" is defined by people and governments, and measures taken by societies to eliminate poverty. You'll also discuss which social, economic, and cultural policies and attitudes assure that poverty continues, as well as the question of why relief for those stricken by poverty is so controversial.

Urban Studies and Planning is a dissection of urban sociology, including its relation to social inequality, politics, technological change, human interaction with the environment, and human psychology. This overview also include changing public policies over time and paradigm shifts in urban studies.

Free Social Worker Courses to Take

Even for well-trained social workers, their job can be a taxing and heart-rending experience. Learning about the many fields of study and some of the techniques social work specialists learn when getting an education not only prepares you for higher learning, but it also gives you an idea whether social work is right for your personality type. If so, these classes educate you on the many social, psychological, and economic hardships the people you're going to help deal with, along with the cultural and political climate in which you'll be immersed.