Career opportunities

Social work nowadays is a growing profession. Increasing social needs suggest that more tasks are going to be undertaken by social work graduates in the near future.
Social workers work with people from all different types of background and living circumstances with a whole range of individual and social problems. Some of the typical areas of social work practice are as follows:

                 Areas of social work practice and examples of services
Family and children' s services
  • Day care centres
  • Nurseries
  • Children' s centres
  • Children with disabilities and illness
  • Foster care and adoption
  • Family counseling
  • Prevention of child abuse and neglect
  • Prevention of domestic violence
Community care and community development
  • Support for people leaving hospital
  • Respite care
  • Crisis care
  • Community rehabilitation
  • Supported accommodation and sheltered housing
  • Residential and nursing home care
  • Social planning
  • Community organizing
  • Community development projects
  • Neighborhood revitalization
  • Refugees and asylum seekers
  • Drug/alcohol abuse
  • Families with HIV and AIDS
  • Work with minority ethnic community groups
Delinquency and criminal behaviour
  • Court social work
  • Support for victims of crime
  • Domestic violence schemes
  • Probation
  • Community Service by offenders
  • Prison social work
  • Supervision of, and support for released prisoners
  • Employment counselling and training
  • Services to prisoners' families
Mental Health Problems
  • Community Care assessments
  • Support to individuals, carers and families
  • Home based services
  • Accommodation
  • Counselling
  • Day services
  • Hospital services

According to the existing Greek legislation social work graduates have diverse career opportunities, as they can be employed in a variety of settings in the statutory, voluntary and private sectors providing social services to individuals, social groups or communities. They can work as private practitioners after completing a five-year professional experience. Among their employment sectors are included: social welfare, physical and mental health, education and special education, social insurance, employment and professional vocation, prevention and therapy of delinquency and criminal behavior, community organization and development, provision of social services in the armed forces.