Programme Objectives
With the aging population in Hong Kong and the increasing demand in areas such as family and child welfare, youth services and mental health, the need for professional social workers continues to rise. Social workers in Hong Kong play a crucial role in assisting vulnerable communities, promoting social justice, and fostering social harmony. They not only help individuals and families solve problems but also strive to improve social structures, fulfilling the professional mission of connecting resources, advocating for rights, and promoting social development.
This programme aims to cultivate students with comprehensive social work professional knowledge, ethical values, and critical thinking. Instructors emphasize a sense of mission and social responsibility, encouraging students to care for vulnerable groups and actively respond to the complex challenges of local society. At the same time, the curriculum will integrate theory and practice to enhance students' ability to analyse, judge, and intervene in social problems within the social environment. Graduates can have good employment prospects in government departments, non-profit or private organizations, and can make professional contributions in promoting social justice, fostering social harmony, and responding to social changes.
Programme Contents
This programme enables students to master the knowledge base of social work and incorporate relevant social science knowledge to develop a critical understanding of social phenomena and social work intervention. It equips students with the ability to analyse and practise social work, apply social development concepts, and exercise good judgement when serving in different organisational and service contexts. The programme places special emphasis on enhancing the personal and professional growth of students, helping them become competent and reflective professional social workers who possess the professional values and qualities that a social worker should have.
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Programme Features
Senior teaching team and rich social worker training experience
- The programme is designed and taught by several senior professors in the social sciences and service fields, including the Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences and the Head of the Department of Applied Social Sciences Professor Chui Yat Hung, Consultant of CTIHE Professor Chan Yuk Chung and the Program Leader of the Department of Applied Social Sciences Associate Professor CHUN Ping Kit. With rich experience in training thousands of social workers for over 22 years, the teaching, learning and quality of the programme are guaranteed.
Programme and graduates with professional recognition
- The programme has been approved by the Social Workers Registration Board and graduates can apply to become registered social workers.
Employment advantages and a decent income
- Graduates can serve as Assistant Social Work Officer (ASWO) or equivalent. The starting salary for the government is at point 16 on the MPS (the starting salary is $36,850 and effective in April 2025).
- According to the 2022/23 graduate survey, the average annual salary of graduates of this programme is more than HKD$400,000.
Bilingual teaching is conducive to learning
- Chinese and English teaching is conducive to learning. Each specific module will be taught in the designated language (Chinese or English) to meet the needs of study and the industry while giving chances to further develop students’ competence in both languages.
Generalist social work training that values down-to-earth practice and values
- The programme aims to train students to become practical and down-to-earth generalist social workers. They will learn to continue growing at the individual and professional levels while embracing the ideal of social work, affirming the value of people, tolerating differences, and exercising independent judgment with self-reflection ability and a sense of responsibility when providing services for people with different needs and promoting social development.
Fieldwork placement opportunities to enhance theoretical and practical integration
- The 900-hour internship (including 100 hours of preparatory workshops for fieldwork + 800 hours of fieldwork experience) allows each student to experience the integration of theory and practice in different fields, such as services for young people, people with disabilities, the elderly and families. This will help students to gain experience and deepen their learning.
2+2 Articulation Scheme
- Students who have completed the 2-year HKCT Higher Diploma in Social Work and fulfilled designated requirements will be eligible to receive an admission offer for this 2-year bachelor programme of senior-year entry (i.e. direct entry to the third year of this Programme).
Key Training Features
It aims to cultivate students holistically with the following emphases:
Personal and professional growth
- Personal and professional growth are our pivotal concerns. To enhance students’ personal and professional growth, four subjects with a total of 8 credits are devoted to this aim. Students will also strengthen their personal growth during co-curricular activities, such as reading the book Choosing Civility: The Twenty Rules of Considerate Conduct by P.M. Forni, and watching the movie "Scent of a Woman".
Passion and compassion
- Passion is the basic condition for achieving success, but social workers need to have compassion at the same time. This must be coupled with compassionate actions that help reduce or eliminate the suffering of the client and prevent professional workers from the pitfalls of becoming aloof and arrogant. The programme will provide chances for students to encounter and communicate with vulnerable groups in society, such as low-income families, dwellers of partitioned flats, blind persons, rehabilitated mental health patients, and marginal youth, so that students can understand and empathise with their situations and be compassionate when walking with them.
Innovation and creativity
- Social workers must also think outside the box and practise their profession creatively. With the strength of the college in social innovation education, this programme also trains students to be down-to-earth and accept changes so that they can solve social problems with innovative ideas. An assignment within the subject on personal growth is designed for students to move out of their comfort zones. Subjects like approaches in 'Globalisation and Social Development', 'Social Innovation', and 'Science, Technology and Society' will open up students to examples of innovative solutions against problems in the world and the state of the art under the development of science and technology. These help students develop innovative ideas and creativity.
Social development perspective
- The focus of social development is to accumulate social capital in social networks and relationships through the collaboration of different stakeholders, and to respond more effectively to social needs and complex social issues. Through multi-party cooperation, sustainable social development can be achieved. Two elective subjects of the programme fall under social development perspectives. To promote social justice, social development is an additional option besides social action.
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