Can a licenced community worker qualify as a professional social worker?—Evidence from China

Abstract China has long suffered from a critical shortage of qualified social workers. To compensate for the inadequacy of formally educated social workers, a number of workers employed in the community neighbourhood committee were granted a social work licence and became registered social workers when they passed licence examinations regardless of whether they had a social work degree. Nevertheless, they are often criticised for a lack of professional competence—they are just registered social workers rather than professional social workers. This study identifies whether licenced community workers have a higher level of professional competence than non-licenced community workers in urban China. Based on a sample of 4,013 participants and the extended regression model, the findings show that the licence promotes the professional competence of community workers, but such promotion is achieved through professional knowledge acquisition rather than professional skills acquisition. Licenced community workers probably perceive stronger professional competence through professional knowledge acquisition, but their professional skills might be inadequate. The findings suggest several implications for the social work licence system.