RSU and Riga City Council agreement will improve the professionalism of social workers

A cooperation agreement signed on 10 July by Professor Aigars Pētersons, Rector of Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) and Irēna Kondrāte, Director of the Riga City Council Welfare Department will pave the way for stronger ties between future social workers and employers, making significant improvements in the procedures and content of student work placements.

As part of the agreement, the Riga City Council Welfare Department will provide RSU trainees with opportunities to have placements offered by the Department and its subordinate institutions. The placement will be paid and available for a longer period – up to three months. This opportunity will be available to students starting with the 2019/2020 academic year.

"By supplementing excellent academic knowledge with a placement that is an introduction to the future workplace, the community gets a proficient professional as soon as they step out the university door. Today Rīga Stradiņš University has taken another step (in this instance, in the complex area of social work) towards collaborative work between students and employers”, emphasises the RSU rector, Professor Aigars Pētersons. Several of the future social worker placement providers were present at the time of signing the agreement, including representatives from Riga Social Service and Riga Municipal Children and Youth Centre.

According to Irēna Kondrāte, Director of the Riga City Council Welfare Department, the social system in Riga has existed for only 26 years, however, thanks to the expertise of professionals who have taken a modern, scientifically-based and evidence-based approach in practice; it has become the flagship of the social sector in Latvia and beyond. "I am very pleased that thanks to the productive and comprehensive cooperation with Rīga Stradiņš University, our institutions and specialists will be involved in academic work, sharing their experience and knowledge with future colleagues, and increasing their professionalism”, says I.Kondrāte. 

Whereas the Head of the professional master’s study programme Social Work, Associate Professor Lolita Vilka remarks that historically powerful medical education traditions at RSU add significant value to the social work study programmes at this university, as medical knowledge has been actively integrated into the educational content, thus adding a special mark of quality to RSU social work graduates. At the same time L.Vilka notes that the University has experienced an unprecedented interest in social work among applicants during the summer admission period.

For 12 years RSU has offered studies in social work at both the Bachelor’s and Master’s level, preparing highly qualified social workers who are able to analyse social processes, evaluate the social needs of people and involve social resources in problem-solving. Graduates of the programme have broad career opportunities in national and local government institutions, planning and coordinating social support services, studying social needs and developing proposals to reduce problems in the community. Studies can be continued in Master’s level programmes Social Work and Social Work with Children and Youth, the latter programme RSU implements jointly with Mykolas Romeris University in Lithuania.