Social Work in Malawi: Career Development in Female Youth

This project aims to reduce the problem of unemployment and underemployment amongst young women in the field of social work in Malawi, through internship. The program will address three pillars key to social work and professionalism; counselling, community work and work ethics. Young women in rural areas face a number of obstacles when it comes to enhancing their skills in social work and obtaining or securing employment after graduation. These include cultural attitudes and stereotypes of gender as well as poverty. The project has adopted the theory of change approach for project implementation, and will therefore involve different stakeholders in each and every activity. Stakeholders include: Media, Civil Society Organisations, Ministries of Gender, Child, Disability and Social Welfare, Education and Youth and Development, University departments of Social Work in Public and Private Universities, policy makers, and the local community. The involvement of beneficiaries as partners of the project will secure sustainability of the project. The main objective of the project is to provide skills development training for female social work university students through internship, the specific objectives include: Interns developing identified skills within the two month timeframe of the internship, identifying training venues and opportunities for young women in 20 non-profit organisations and 50 female students participating in the internship program every year.