Naslov
Reaping Benefits of Early Professional Development During the War and Post-War Times.

Autori
Delale, Eva Anđela ; Košćec Bjelajac, Adrijana

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, znanstveni

Izvornik
MULTIDISCIPLINARY EDUCATION AND PRACTICE FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIAL GOOD: 20th Biennial International Symposium of International Consortium for Social Development. Book Of Abstracts. / Rihter, Ljiljana ; Berc, Gordana - Zagreb : Studijski centar socijalnog rada Pravnog fakulteta Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, 2017, 75-76

ISBN
978-953-270-108-1

Skup
20th Biennial International Symposium of International Consortium for Social Development

Mjesto i datum
Zagreb, Hrvatska, 07.07.2017. - 11.07.2017

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
personal development, professional development, professional competences, secondary traumatization, secondary resilience

Sažetak
Professional development of many helping professionals is determined by national and international legislation (e.g. psychology, medicine, social work). Among other things, those frameworks regulate the ratio between theoretical and practical components of the university education for the purpose of easier transition of young professionals into the labour market. Social and political circumstances in Croatia during the Croatian War of Independence created a specific framework for professional development of young psychologists and other helping professionals, which differed substantially from the circumstances of professional development during peace times. Many students and young professionals had been actively engaged in providing various kinds of help and support to refugees, displaced persons, soldiers, and returnees during the war and post-war period. They had been working under professional supervision, and participating in different educational programs and training. Such specific practical engagement and additional education accelerated the development of their professional skills and competences, which greatly supplemented their basic academic education. Many of them became expert providers of psychosocial services, counselling and support in post-traumatic recovery. The aim of our study was to gain insight into acquired and developed skills and competences among young paraprofessionals and professionals, through their engagement in paid or unpaid work related to war and post-war circumstances in Croatia. We also wanted to see how that influenced their later professional choices as well as whether it had manifested in their present professional and personal lives in any way. We will present the results pertaining to qualitative research data we collected via online survey from 58 psychologists, social workers and other helping professionals, who had been working or started working in any kind of jobs related to war and post-war circumstances in the period between 1991 and 1998, while they were either students close to finishing their studies or professionals with less than five years of professional experience. Professional experience in the war and post-war period had a large and significant impact on the development of participants’ professional interests and choices, and motivated them to actively pursue the specific professional activities and set high performance standards. As for the impact it had on their current jobs, their early professional experiences shaped their professional values, competences and standards, enriched their experience, built professional competence and also formed them as professionals with humanistic 76 values and high standards of professional work. Finally, the data show they still feel consequences of the war on the personal level, and that the specific framework of their early professional development had a significant impact on their private life, relationships and personal growth and development as well. The paper will present the dilemmas related to risks and benefits of exposure of young professionals to trauma- related work in their early professional development. Nowadays, that kind of work is still mobilizing many young people and helping professionals to engage in voluntary, paid or unpaid, work within the current social context, as is for example the case with immigrant crisis. The ways in which higher education and professional practice could promote early personal and professional development, prevent secondary traumatization or promote secondary resilience will be challenged.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Sociologija, Psihologija, Socijalne djelatnosti

POVEZANOST RADA