What's A Human Services Degrees ?

Answer 1

Human services refers to services that are designed to improve the lives and living conditions of clients. Broadly defined, human services clients usually fall into one or more of the following categories: child welfare, gerontology, health care, developmental disabilities, criminal justice, employees of schools, colleges and universities, hospitals, or they are business or industry corporate employees. Many human service degrees focus on advocacy skills, life skills and life skills training for their service groups. The goal is proactive assistance with coping strategies and skills that will enhance the quality of life of their clients.

Human service workers are strikingly similar to social workers in many ways. Both deal with people in crisis, people who need help, whether short term or long term. Both human service workers and social workers are committed to making the lives of their clients better. There are some basic distinctions; human service workers tend to focus on large groups or populations; social workers tend to deal with individuals from those groups. Another difference is that social workers are licensed, and human services workers don’t have to be licensed.

Before considering majoring in social work or human services, a prospective student should be highly motivated as well as practical, and have a great deal of patience and compassion. Other necessary skills include strong abilities regarding interpersonal relationships, verbal and written communication skills, public speaking or teaching abilities, organization and time management skills, the ability to process new information regarding rapidly changing social program standards and initiatives and match program offerings with the needs of their clients.

Many colleges and schools offer both associate (two year) degrees and Bachelor’s (four year degrees) in social working or human services. They require a high school diploma or GED. Some jobs will require a M.S. degree in social working or human services, but a number of jobs, particularly those designed to support local communities, do not.