Abstract:

The paper presents the concept of lifelong learning of social workers and social work assistants in Slovakia. The theoretical basis of the issue focuses on the basic characteristics of lifelong learning, which aims to help strengthen the key competencies and basic skills of adult students. The theoretical part is directly followed by our own research, which consists of the opinions of 36 social workers and 27 social work assistants. Both groups are workers of both sexes with different lengths of experience in social work (starting: 1-5 years; independent: 5-15 years; experienced (more than 15 years of experience in the field), based on which six research groups are formed. From a methodological point of view, a qualitative research design is used using a focus group and subsequent questionnaire data collection. Using a questionnaire, we examine the most numerous statements that can be identified as manifestations of the academic interest of social workers and social work assistants in lifelong learning. The aim of the research is to categorize the findings into the form of the most important factors that arouse the academic interest of respondents in lifelong learning. We present the respondents' opinions through four research areas, which further specify the factors arousing the academic interest of the respondents: a) factors based on thematic areas of education in which the respondents are willing to participate (e.g. specifics of working with a specific target group); b) factors with regard to the motivation of the respondents (e.g. education due to the need for new skills, i.e. training or retraining); c) factors with regard to the preferred forms of further education of respondents in social work (e.g. Supervision); d) factors with regard to preferred forms of online education (e.g. online workshops, lectures and webinars). Research results and discussion present the views and motivations of social workers and social work assistants in relation to further education in the field.

Keywords:

Lifelong learning, academic interest, social worker, evaluation, online education.