A Career in Human Services - Choosing a Human Services Degree

human services female executive
Once a career sought mostly by devoted good Samaritans, human services has taken on a new look in the 21st century. As one of the fastest growing career fields in recent years, human services spans well over 180 job titles. A brief cross section of human services jobs include work in:
  • adoption and foster care
  • behavioral and mental health
  • child and adult literacy
  • child care and adult care
  • dispute resolution and mediation
  • elder, spousal, and child abuse prevention and recovery
  • hospice programs and grief counseling
  • housing and nutrition assistance
  • immunization and health screening
  • physical and mental rehabilitation
  • substance abuse prevention and recovery
  • victim outreach and support.

Career Paths

Human services professionals are typically classified as administrators or caseworkers:
  • Administrators are instrumental in developing, managing and delivering service programs. The administrator's work can vary from managing caseloads and work flow to leading large social service organizations or being the champion of new programs.

  • Caseworkers interact directly with clients in need, finding solutions to major life challenges and providing them a better standard of living. Some caseworkers may be specialists directly involved in individual therapy programs while others are generalists assisting clients in a variety of ways to qualify for and obtain necessary services.
 
Entering the field as a caseworker, the human services professional can be a highly skilled specialist rising to manage a team of similar specialists. Both specialists and generalists can move up into positions of increasing responsibility (and higher salaries) in management and administration.
 
Entry-level jobs in administration can also lead to positions of increasing responsibility within the same organization or in other organizations with similar goals.
 
Human services jobs are available in federal and state departments of human services, local public agencies and private non-profit and for-profit service organizations.

Skills Required

Anyone entering the human services field needs a caring attitude and a genuine desire to help others. Beyond these personal characteristics, today's professionals require specific skills essential to success in this field, including:
  • counseling: People in need require advice and information delivered in a caring and compassionate way. The human services professional has the skills necessary to help individuals understand and focus on what they need to do to help themselves.
 
  • oral communication: Communicating clearly to clients is an obvious requirement, but many other situations arise when case information has to be relayed orally to supervisors, other social service providers, law enforcement or the courts.

    In higher levels of administration, the ability to orally make a compelling case for financially supporting the organization's programs and goals can be critical to meeting client needs.
 
  • investigation: Clients cannot always express their needs well and, in some cases, may be inhibited from providing complete information. The ability to ask the right questions and read between the lines can be essential to helping deserving people obtain assistance they desperately need.

    Investigation skills also help caseworkers screen out those who may be trying to take unfair advantage of our social systems.
 
  • written communication: Social services work often involves preparing case summaries and reports necessary for others to understand the client's needs and provide the appropriate support. The ability to clearly and concisely document people's situations can make a critical difference in them obtaining the help they need.

    Grant writing is another important skill because public agencies and private foundations often provide funding for social service programs. Obtaining grant funding requires the ability to clearly document an organization's methods and outcomes.

Education

Entry-level work as an aide requires little more than a high school diploma, but for better paying jobs and advancement some type of college degree is necessary. An associate degree can qualify you for one of the many positions opening each year for human services assistants, which is the first rung on the career ladder.
 
Working as a caseworker or in administration usually requires a bachelor degree, and, in certain highly specialized areas of casework in healthcare and mental health, a master or doctoral degree is a prerequisite.
 
Though a bachelor degree can open the door to a career in healthcare administration and management, higher-level degrees are often important for advancement to the upper management ranks.
 
A variety of schools offer certificate programs and the full range of degrees from associate to PhD. Areas of specialization include:

Salary Expectations

Demand for human services workers has been growing because of the aging baby-boomer population and the increasing awareness of the benefits of intervention versus treatment for a wide variety of social problems. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' budget recently topped $650 billion in outlays to agencies both public and private. This demand is helping to raise the pay for workers in this field.
 
Median salaries for entry-level to mid-level professionals can range from $20,000 to $50,000 annually. Professionals with advanced degrees, work experience and significant management responsibilities can earn substantially more.
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