From social work to administrative work – changes in professional practice and qualifications within the field of employment policy

Abstract

From 2001 labour market policy changed not only its name to employment policy but also its content and administrative structure. More reforms have since recalibrated the implementation structures and the content of policies with implications as to the work conditions, the tasks, and the qualification structure of the people involved in the jobcentres. In 1980 one could talk of ‘street-level bureaucrats’ but today it is more than bureaucracy that is at stake. The frontline workers have experienced profound changes in their daily work, going from traditional social work and more holistic approaches to administrative work and job-oriented control of the unemployed people. A multitude of educational backgrounds are now being represented. Frontline staff might have no education at all. So there is no guarantee that unemployed people will meet well educated social workers at the jobcenter. An urgent need for better training and education and for a new recruitment practice at the jobcentres has also been recorded. Today the frontline workers are faced with different kinds of professional and ethical dilemmas. A clash of ethics is being witnessed. The article highlights some of these problems together with registration of different jobcentre strategies to cope with ‘wicked problems’ within the labour market. Both quantitative and qualitative data and a triangular method form the basis of the research conclusions.