Social worker
Also called welfare worker, community worker, cultural mediator
Social workers are practice-based professionals who promote social change and development, social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of people. They interact with individuals, families, groups, organisations and communities in order to provide various forms of therapy and counselling, group work, and community work. Social workers guide people to use services to claim benefits, access community resources, find jobs and training, obtain legal advice or deal with other local authority departments.
What you'd do
Social work and counselling professionals · ILO- Interviewing clients individually, in families, or in groups, to assess their situation and problems and determine the types of services required
- Analysing the client's situation and presenting alternative approaches to resolving problems
- Compiling case records or reports for courts and other legal proceedings
- Providing counselling, therapy and mediation services and facilitating group sessions to assist clients to develop skills and insights needed to deal with and resolve their social and personal problems
- Planning and implementing programmes of assistance for clients including crisis intervention and referral to agencies that provide financial assistance, legal aid, housing, medical treatment and other services
- Investigating cases of abuse or neglect and taking action to protect children and other at risk persons
- Working with offenders during and after sentence, to help them to integrate into the community and to change attitudes and behaviour in order to reduce further offending
- Providing advice to prison governors and to probation and parole review boards that helps determine whether, and under what conditions, an offender should be incarcerated, released from prison or undergo alternative correctional measures
- Acting as advocates for client groups in the community and lobbying for solutions to problems affecting them
- Developing prevention and intervention programmes to meet community needs
- Maintaining contact with other social service agencies, educational institutions and health care providers involved with clients to provide information and obtain feedback on clients' overall situation and progress
Will there be jobs?
Average prospectsA typical number of jobs will need filling by 2035.
Solid: measured. Dashed: forecast.
What does it pay?
Above averagePay depends a lot on the country: from about €1,800 a month (Bulgaria) to €8,800 (Luxembourg), before tax.
Pick a country at the top of the page to see typical pay there, for people under 30, and compared with all jobs.
Among professionals in the EU, women earn 21% less per hour than men. Professionals · Eurostat
What do I need to study?
Usually a degreeA degree in social work and counselling is the usual route.
946 institutions in the EU offer health and welfare bachelor's degrees. Pick a country at the top of the page to see where to study and the official course finders.
Will AI change it?
Very littleAI could help with only small parts of the tasks.
Average task score 0.28 on a scale from 0 (AI can't do it) to 1 (AI could do it fully).
See the score for each of the 11 tasks
Based on what AI could technically do when assessed in 2025. It is not a forecast for a future year, and not a forecast of job losses. Scores for social work and counselling professionals. Source: ILO (2025), adapted (credits).