Klaipėdos universitetas

The paper presents the discourse of the social work professionalization from the viewpoints of practice, research, academic activity, and professional identity, by revealing the expression of social worker competencies in the changing society. By means of evaluating the 20-year-experience of social worker training in Lithuania, the authors reveal the identity of social work at two levels: professional (academisation and practice) and legal (profession and study status). For the purpose, a novel approach to the formation of the social work theory, study methods, and the education of intercultural communication and lifelong learning is employed.

In this article authors present the development of intercultural competences as a part of study process. Organization of study process in the modern world is not confined within one institution or one country. Possibilities to study in different joint programmes or choose Erasmus courses are open for many students. Not only the language abilities, but also intercultural awareness and competences influence the quality of communication and level of understanding by the representatives of other cultures. Intercultural competences are one of the very important abilities that are also presented as the outcomes of new methods of education that should prepare students to cope with intercultural environment. Study process requires students to obtain various abilities (application of knowledge, research, special, personal, social). All these abilities are particularly important in conducting comparative research and adopting foreign experience. The article emphasizes that intercultural competencies in modern study process can be assessed on two levels: the level of intercultural communication and intercultural level of scientific research.