Financial Capability and Asset Building Curriculum for Social Work Students in the Kenyan Technical and Vocational Training Education System

Abstract

Social workers serve individuals and communities experiencing socio-economic and financial exclusion. However, research indicates that social work practitioners often lack the preparation, knowledge, skills, and attitudes to tackle clients’ increasingly complex financial problems. Currently, the Kenyan social work curriculum does not offer content to support financial decision-making, self-sufficiency, and advocacy for financially excluded communities. This lack of knowledge has left graduating social workers with minimal tools to inform clients’ financial decision-making and address their personal financial issues. Focusing on Technical and Vocational Training Institutes in Kenya, this paper provides a critical review of the gaps inherent in the current social work curriculum in equipping certificate and diploma students with the tools required to foster client and personal financial well-being. Informed by the multiple public actors engaged in Kenya’s higher education system, we argue that a renewal of the social work curriculum is needed to incorporate content responsive to the needs of local communities. Guided by the financial capability framework and social development theory, we propose three overarching curricula goals, and recommend learning outcomes and measurable competencies aligned with the lived realities of social work students in middle-level colleges and the clients they serve.

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