In the spring semester each year, students, of whom we are very proud, approach us for letters of reference to accompany their applications for graduate school or employment.  We proudly invest the time to tailor each reference letter specifically to the student.  What have they done in field, in the classroom, in volunteer work, or in prior employment?  What has been their involvement in student and community activities?  Do they have an exceptional GPA, or strong multi-cultural skills?  We carefully counsel our students to correctly select the job or MSW program that exactly fits their unique combination of skills and education.  We smile proudly as students we have recommended happily report that they have been accepted at the ideal graduate program, have obtained the perfect job, or have received that all-important scholarship.  We pride ourselves in individualizing our work with students, the way we teach them, and the way we provide academic advisement to them.  Everything we do is aimed at matching the student to just the right “next step” in their professional career.

However, in one area, this individualized planning process is stopped in its tracks.  This area is licensure and certification.  Throughout the country, BSW students and graduates want to pursue licensure or certification.  They want to obtain the best possible credentials.  If a student has an interest in clinical work, the process continues to work perfectly.  We advise the student to pursue the best possible clinical MSW program, obtain two years of supervised post-MSW experience, and then apply for clinical licensure. 

But what about the student whose interests are in other areas of social work?  What about the student who wants to do community work, research, planning, or policy analysis?  Most states have a general social work license or certification and an advanced clinical license or certification.  Few if any states have a license designed specifically for practitioners who want to pursue policy, community organization, administration, or research. 

A disturbing trend has emerged as students with an interest in macro practice begin to plan their MSW education.  Many of them apply to clinical MSW programs out of fear that, without a clinical license, they will never obtain a social work job after they graduate.  Some of these students – whose skills and competencies are best used in research, administration, policy, planning, and community work -  complete a clinical MSW degree and obtain employment in clinical jobs, at least for a period of time sufficient to obtain a clinical license.  Others, having decided that clinical work is definitely not for them, seek jobs in administration, policy, and planning for which their MSW education has not prepared them.  They arrive on their first day of work in an administrative position without even the most basic skills in program planning or in developing an agency budget.  Sadly, agencies respond to this dilemma by hiring administrators whose graduate education was obtained in management science, public administration, or some other field instead of MSWs.

Something is indeed wrong in our profession when the licensure process guides students to follow a course of study that diverges from their real job interests.  What is the answer to this growing trend?  One option is the development of advanced social work licensure geared to macro practice.  With the development of an advanced macro license, students would no longer feel that they would have to settle for just a “general license” which appears to have less value. 

Clinical social workers have always vigorously pursued clinical social work licensure as a key prerequisite to receiving third party payments for their services.  For social workers in indirect practice, a macro social work license usually is not required.  In fact, sadly, some social workers who move into macro roles cease to even see themselves as social workers.

We have many excellent MSW programs that emphasize the development of macro level competencies.  That is not the problem.  The issue to be addressed is the perception that all social workers should pursue a clinical license, and that a general social work license has less value.

Part of the answer to this dilemma is addressed by the way we advise our students.  This spring, one such student came to me for advisement about graduate school.  Her interests were clearly in macro social work although she professed that she was very capable in working with individuals.  It just was not her passion.  She had been advised to apply to a clinical MSW and obtain her clinical license.  She was told that she would otherwise never get a job upon graduation.  Fortunately, she stopped at my office to discuss this before completing the application.  We discussed the differences between direct and indirect practice, and the fact that many macro positions are actually created by the person who will occupy the position through networking or by development of a grant proposal.  We discussed the fact that she would have to have competencies in macro practice if she were to pursue the type of job she really wanted. 

I found myself actually grinning when she excitedly came to my office to announce that she had been accepted into an MSW program of study in administration, policy, and planning.

This was the answer for this particular student, who had sufficient passion to take the chance of pursuing the type of career she wanted, but what about the others who remain afraid to pursue their desired career paths??