Economic and Financial Well-Being in the Social Work Curriculum: Faculty Perspectives

Are social work students trained for the financial and economic issues they will encounter in their clients’ lives? Social workers and other helping professionals routinely attempt to build financial and economic well-being for clients. To understand gaps and barriers in training for this practice area, this study conducted semistructured interviews with social work faculty across the United States, examining the extent to which financial and economic content is covered in the curriculum and faculty perspectives on teaching such material. The findings suggest that barriers impede training in financial and economic content, despite broad recognition that the training is important and relevant.

Project: Financial Capability and Asset Building