Condiciones laborales de un grupo de egresados de Trabajo Social de la subregión norte del Valle del Cauca, Colombia

Abstract

This article presents the results of a descriptive research, developed under a mixed methodology, whose purpose was to analyze the labor situation of a group of Social Work graduates. A random survey was applied to 62 people, to inquire about the main trends in relation to their working conditions and 16 semi-structured interviews, which through a process of content analysis, pointed out the main limitations for the professional practice and their ways of coping. Regarding working conditions, it was found that they involve characteristics of a labor market characterized by flexibilization, outsourcing and labor precariousness typical of the world of work and of the privatization processes of social services. In relation to the aspects that condition and limit the development of professional intervention, we found an excessive workload, instability due to short-term contracts, in addition to compliance with multiple administrative procedures, low budgets for social investment, assistance and quantifying conceptions of intervention, as well as difficulties in the teams for interdisciplinary work, professional inexperience due to high labor turnover, demands outside the professional work and reduced time to develop the intervention; aspects that affect the personal and working life of the graduates.