Student’s Readiness to Work in Aging: Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills

Abstract

The aging population is growing every day and will significantly increase as the “baby boomers” continue to age. This will open up social work career opportunities, which ultimately means that more social workers need to become well-informed about the older adult population. A self-reported questionnaire conducted through emails, to undergrad and graduate social worker students, examined the students’ knowledge, attitude, skills and readiness to work with the aging population. This study expects to find that social work students are interested and open to learning about gerontology. These results will help motivate universities to provide academic opportunities towards specializing in gerontology.