This document summarizes a graduate social work course in Hanoi, Vietnam conducted in collaboration with UNICEF. It discusses the context of social work in Vietnam, including the challenges posed by increasing inequality between urban and rural areas as a result of rapid industrialization. It notes that social work in Vietnam is currently focused on social development and social control enforcement by the state. The document also outlines involvement from RMIT and a proposal from San Jose State University to establish an MSW program in Hanoi to help address the lack of formal training for many of Vietnam's 65,000 social workers.

1. University of Social Sciences and
Humanities, Hanoi - Vietnam
• 4th
Social Work Graduate Knowledge
Enhancement Course
• Collaborative project with the United
Nations Children’s Fund, Vietnam
• Conducted in Hanoi, August 2010
• Final in series of three intensive courses,
previously held in 2008 and 2009

3. Clinical Assessment in Social Work
• 80 students participating in course
• Mostly young graduates of masters or
doctoral studies teaching social work
• Many social work teachers are not
graduates of social work schools
• Some very experienced practitioners who
have had no professional training

5. Context of Social Work in Vietnam
• Hugman, R. et al (2007),
Developing Social Work in Vietnam,
International Social Work, Vol 50.
• Hugman, R. et al (2009),
Developing Social Work in Vietnam:
Issues in Professional Education,
Social Work Education, Vol 28.

7. Social Context in Vietnam
• Major challenge to Vietnam society is the
rapid increase in inequality, shown by the
disparity of incomes between urban and
rural families
• Impact of rapid industrialisation impacting
on social dysfunction, including substance
misuse and social disharmony in
traditional Vietnamese social structures

8. Current Social Work Situation
• Social work being seen as a form of social
development
• But also used to enforce the social control
functions of the State, to deal with the new
“social evils”
• Social evils include child neglect, crime,
prostitution, STDs, domestic violence,
resulting from social transformation from
rural to urban economic opportunities

9. RMIT Involvement
• Julian Silverman and David McElgunn
Vocational Social Work, Training Needs in
Vietnam, November 2009
• Best Practice in In-Service Training, a
model to support the training of in-service
workers in Vietnam, June 2010
• Proposing a “competency based model”

11. San Jose University, California
• Proposal for the MSW Social Work
program based in Hanoi, in collaboration
with San Jose State University
• In 2004, following Doi Moi, a process of
economic reform and renewal
commenced in 1986, a new national
curriculum for universities to teach
degrees in social work was approved

13. Future Directions
• 65,000 social workers engaged at present,
most without training
• Social work educators largely trained in
other social science disciplines
• Educational models do not recognise the
importance of practice and field education
as part of the professional training
• San Jose proposal of MSW program