Global Academic Credentials for Clinical Social Work

Social work qualifications carry the same abbreviations almost everywhere. BSW, MSW, DSW. What differs is what those letters entitle you to do, and who decides. This guide sets out the qualifying credential and the body that gates it, for the eleven jurisdictions we could source.

Quick answer: who gates the credential, and how

Four arrangements account for every jurisdiction below. A national register. A federation of state or provincial registers. A professional association with no statute behind it. And a statute so new its register is still being built.

One distinction underlies the whole table. Accrediting a degree and registering a person are separate acts, usually by separate bodies. CASWE-ACFTS says so of itself: it "does not play a role in the registration of individual social workers post-graduation".³ An accredited degree is a ticket to apply. It is not the licence.

What the credential names mean

The abbreviations travel further than the meanings do.

• BSW. The Bachelor of Social Work, a four-year first degree in the United States and Canada. Irish approved awards also appear as a Bachelor in Social Studies¹⁴
• MSW. The Master of Social Work. In North America it is the qualification clinical practice runs through. In Australia the qualifying master's is styled MSW (Qualifying), to distinguish it from advanced research master's degrees²⁴
• Advanced standing. A shortened master's for holders of an accredited bachelor's degree in the same discipline. Shorter because the foundational curriculum is already done, not because the standard is lower
• DSW and PhD. A practice doctorate and a research doctorate. CASWE-ACFTS does not accredit doctoral programmes at all.³ CSWE has moved the other way, and now publishes standards for practice doctorates and post-master's fellowships¹

A doctorate is nowhere the qualifying credential. On every register below, entry runs through a bachelor's or a master's degree. Someone advertising a DSW has not thereby been registered anywhere.

Statutory registration on a single national register

The United Kingdom: four nations, four regulators

There is no UK-wide social work regulator, and a guide that implies one will mislead you.

In England, Social Work England is a body corporate established by Part 2 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017. Section 36 puts it plainly: "A body corporate called Social Work England is established". Sections 40 and 45 let the Secretary of State restrict the use of titles in relation to social work in England, with summary offences attached.⁵ Regulation transferred from the Health and Care Professions Council to Social Work England on 2 December 2019.⁶ The HCPC is the former regulator, and much published guidance has not caught up.

Scotland runs on its own statute. The Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001 constitutes the Scottish Social Services Council at section 43, requires a register of social workers and other social service workers at section 44, and deals with use of the title "social worker" at section 52.⁷ Wales registers through Social Care Wales, which states that most people working in social care there need to register with it.⁸ Northern Ireland registers through the Northern Ireland Social Care Council.⁹

For UK qualification routes, entry grades and post-qualifying awards, see our UK credentials guide; for the registers and the offences, our UK licensing and regulation guide.

Ireland

Ireland regulates by designating professions in statute. The Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 designates fourteen professions at section 4(1), social worker among them.¹² Section 79(4) prohibits using a designated title unless entitled to do so, entitlement coming from being on the register, and section 80 makes contravention an offence carrying, on summary conviction, a class A fine or up to six months' imprisonment or both. The words "with intent to deceive" were removed from the core subsections in 2014.¹³ Ireland therefore does not require the deceptive intent the equivalent English offence requires.

The Social Workers Registration Board at CORU publishes the approved qualifications by name, at bachelor's and master's level and as postgraduate and graduate diplomas, across eight institutions.¹⁴ Read the list, not the award title. Between a Bachelor in Social Studies, a Master of Social Science and a Professional Master of Social Work, the regulatory status is identical.

South Africa

The South African Council for Social Service Professions derives its mandate from the Social Service Professions Act 110 of 1978, which confers the power to regulate social work and child and youth care work at professional and auxiliary level.¹⁶

The Council registers in eight categories: social workers, social auxiliary workers, the two student equivalents, and four child and youth care categories. Registration as a social worker is documentary. A certified identity document, proof of highest school grade, the academic record, a certified copy of the BSW, and the fee.¹⁵

There is no compulsory community service condition on SACSSP registration. This page previously said there was, and a graduate reading that would have planned a year the regulator does not require. Neither the Council's registration requirements nor the Act imposes one.¹⁵¹⁶ If you have met the claim elsewhere, it is not a registration condition, and any graduate placement scheme you were told about is a separate matter to take up with whoever runs it.

Our South Africa credentials guide goes further into the qualification routes.

New Zealand

New Zealand protects the title and gates it at a single board. The Social Workers Registration Board states that "'Social worker' is a protected title. That means only social workers who are registered by the SWRB can use the title 'social worker'", and you need registration if you call yourself one, are known as one, or are held out to be one.¹⁷

Three qualification pathways lead onto that register: a New Zealand recognised social work qualification, an Australian qualification accredited by the AASW, or an overseas qualification assessed against the Board's standards. Applicants are also assessed as a fit and proper person to practise and undergo New Zealand Police vetting. Registered social workers hold an annual practising certificate, work to the Code of Conduct, and complete continuing professional development.¹⁷

A fourth route closed this year. Until 28 February 2026, section 13 of the Act provided a pathway through recognition of prior experience; the Board is no longer accepting applications for it.¹⁷ A New Zealand social worker registered before that date may hold registration by a route no longer open to anyone else.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong's Social Workers Registration Board has operated under the Social Workers Registration Ordinance since 6 June 1997, and describes its mandate as strictly governed by that Ordinance. A person whose name does not appear on the register is not entitled to use the title of social worker or its related descriptions. The Board maintains lists of recognised local qualifications and assesses non-local ones against published criteria.¹⁸ Anyone holding an overseas degree and planning to work in Hong Kong should read those criteria before enrolling, not after.

Federated registration: Canada and the United States

Canada

Canada separates the two functions completely. CASWE-ACFTS accredits the education. The provincial and territorial colleges register the person.

The accreditation standards are specific about volume of practice. A BSW includes at least 700 field education practicum hours, under standard 3.1.1. Where a student enters an MSW without an accredited BSW, the foundational component includes a practicum of at least 450 hours under standard 3.2.2, and the advanced component adds a practicum of at least 450 hours or a thesis under standard 3.2.1.⁴

This page previously gave 450 hours as the Canadian BSW figure. That was the MSW foundational number in the wrong row, understating the undergraduate requirement by 250 hours.

Registration is provincial and territorial, and each college sets its own requirements. Ontario is the example here, and the only Canadian registrar this page cites for general registration. Its applicants must hold a CASWE-accredited Canadian social work degree, or an approved equivalent, or a combination of qualifications and experience the College determines equivalent; those who qualified more than five years before applying must show currency of practice.¹⁹ Check the college of the province you intend to practise in.

United States

The United States runs the same split at a larger scale. CSWE accredits programmes nationally. State boards license practitioners, and they do not agree with one another.

CSWE's Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards require 400 hours of field education for a baccalaureate degree and 900 hours for a master's degree.² The Association of Social Work Boards writes the examinations the boards use. Its exam page enumerates four categories against the 2026 blueprint: Bachelors, Masters, Advanced Generalist and Clinical. An Associate exam is separately priced on that page but is not among the four it enumerates.²³ ASWB is the testing organisation, not a licensing body.

There is no national figure for the supervised experience behind an American clinical licence, and this page used to publish one. The old text gave 3,000 to 4,000 hours over two to four years. Two states show why a single range does not survive contact with the law.

New York counts time and caps how fast it can be served. California counts hours with a floor on elapsed weeks. A number fitting one does not describe the other, and neither describes the remaining jurisdictions. Check the board of the state you intend to practise in. Our United States credentials guide sets out the wider American picture.

Self-regulation: Australia

Australia is the one jurisdiction here where no statute stands behind the credential, and the profession says so itself. The Australian Social Work Education and Accreditation Standards state that "In the absence of a legislated regulatory framework in Australia, the social work profession is self-regulating", the AASW being the body nominated by members, education providers and the profession to set standards.²⁴

That is a difference in arrangement, not a judgement about quality. The accreditation requirements are among the most prescriptive on this page. Degrees are accredited at Australian Qualifications Framework levels 7, 8 and 9, as Bachelor of Social Work, Bachelor of Social Work with Honours, and Master of Social Work (Qualifying), and graduates of all three are professionally qualified as entry-level social workers.²⁴

Field education is where they bite hardest.²⁴

• 1,000 hours of professional practice learning across no more than three placements, over at least two years of the programme, with no placement shorter than 250 hours
• At least two placements involving distinctly different practice learning experiences, at least 500 hours undertaken in Australia, and 500 hours in a direct practice role
• Field educators who are qualified social workers with at least two years of post-qualifying experience, giving at least 1.5 hours of structured supervision per 35 hours of placement, half of it one to one
• A minimum of 140 hours of face-to-face classroom teaching in professional practice skills, at least 35 hours of it before the first placement

Our Australia credentials guide places social work beside the professions Australia registers nationally.

A statute that has just arrived: Kenya

Kenyan social work was unregulated by statute for a long time, and much published guidance still says so. That changed recently enough to be worth stating precisely.

The Social Work Professionals Act, 2026 is Act No. 1 of 2026, assented to on 19 February 2026 and commenced on 10 March 2026. It establishes the Institute of Social Work Professionals and the Social Work Professionals Board, and provides for the examination, registration and regulation of social work professionals.²⁹

Section 18 sets the qualification. An applicant must be of good conduct, have paid the prescribed fees, and have completed a prescribed certificate, diploma or degree course and passed the examination conducted or prescribed by the Institute. A course and examination taken outside Kenya also qualifies where the Institute recognises them as equivalent. Section 27 provides the title of Registered Social Work Professional and section 38 penalises its unauthorised use.²⁹

Read the commencement date before planning around it. The Act provides for an interim council within twelve months of commencement,²⁹ so the register and the prescribed courses are being built rather than being long settled. Anyone assessing a Kenyan social work credential in 2026 is assessing it against a framework in its first year.

The academic side predates the statute by decades. The University of Nairobi has taught a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work since 1976: four years, 41 taught courses of 45 contact hours plus three practicum courses, and not less than 1,200 hours of field practicum.³⁰ Our Kenya credentials guide covers the other Kenyan mental health professions.

What makes a social worker a mental health practitioner

This is the question the abbreviations do not answer, and the one a directory has to. An MSW is not a mental health credential in itself. Every jurisdiction that has an answer builds it from the same three parts: post-qualifying supervised practice in a mental health setting, a named credential or class on top of general registration, and an authority that general registration does not carry.

The AMHP role is the one most often misdescribed as a social work credential. It is not confined to social workers. The 2008 approval regulations for England set out four eligible professions: a registered social worker, a first-level nurse whose registration carries a mental health or learning disabilities qualification, a registered occupational therapist, and a chartered psychologist holding a current practising certificate.¹¹ Those are the England regulations. Wales approves under its own instrument, which we did not locate, so nothing here states the Welsh position. The regulations name the social work registration body as it stood in 2008, and that body has changed twice since, from the General Social Care Council to the HCPC and then to Social Work England.⁶ The list of professions is the durable part.

Two things follow for anyone reading a practitioner's credentials. A clinical class of registration and a professional-association credential are different objects, even where both are called clinical. And a social worker described as an AMHP has been approved for a statutory function by a local authority, which is not the same as a mental health specialism.

We found no comparable clinical class on the South African, Hong Kong, New Zealand or Irish registers. None of SACSSP's eight categories is a clinical sub-class.¹⁵

Field education compared

Supervised practice hours are the most quoted figures in social work education, and the most often mangled, because the same word covers different objects. The table gives only figures taken from an accreditor's own standards.

Three cautions before treating these as comparable. The Kenyan row is one university's programme requirement, where the other three are national standards. The Australian 1,000 hours attaches to the programme and applies equally to the bachelor's and the qualifying master's, while the North American figures attach to the level. And the units differ. Some of these standards count days of practice learning, others count hours. A day count and an hour count are not directly comparable.

Mutual recognition, and what is not one

Two genuine bilateral agreements exist in social work. Confusing them with credential evaluation services is the standard error.

The two agreements

Canada and the United States. CASWE-ACFTS holds a mutual degree recognition agreement with CSWE, under which degrees from CASWE-ACFTS accredited and CSWE accredited BSW and MSW programmes are considered equivalent.³ CSWE publishes the same instrument under a different name: graduates of CASWE-accredited Canadian programmes "are recognized through a memorandum of understanding as having earned a degree equivalent to graduates from a CSWE-BOA-accredited program".³² Search both wordings, agreement and memorandum. It recognises the degree, and registers nobody.³

Australia and New Zealand. The AASW and the New Zealand Social Workers Registration Board hold a Mutual Recognition Agreement "to mutually recognise social workers who are credentialed in Australia or registered in New Zealand".²⁵ The wording repays attention: credentialed on one side, registered on the other, because the two countries do not run the same kind of system. From the New Zealand side, an AASW-accredited Australian qualification is one of the three recognised pathways onto the register.¹⁷ Applicants must also meet the AASW English Language Policy.²⁵

Both agreements are verified at the publications of all four parties. Our global regulatory guide for the social work profession sets out how registration and licensing work country by country.

What is not a mutual recognition agreement

CSWE's International Social Work Degree Recognition and Evaluation Service assesses the comparability of an applicant's social work education to social work education in the United States, against the 2022 EPAS competencies. Recognition is used to establish qualifications for employment, graduate school admission, NASW membership, state licensing and certification.²⁸

That is a one-way evaluation of a foreign degree by an American body, and nothing reciprocal follows from it. This page previously listed it as a fourth mutual recognition agreement while also listing the same service under credential evaluation, so one service appeared twice under two headings. It belongs only under evaluation, and its availability is worth checking before you plan a timeline around it.²⁸

The wider point holds everywhere above. An evaluation says your degree is comparable. A registration body decides whether you may practise, separately.

What this page does not cover

Eleven jurisdictions are covered above. That is what we could source at a regulator, an accreditor or a statute, and it is the honest scope of this page. An earlier version claimed fifty-plus countries and a hundred and fifty-plus credentials against fifteen listed sources. Most of those entries were a single table row naming no regulator, no accreditor and no institution, and citing nothing. They have been removed rather than rewritten.

Not covered here, and not to be inferred from anything above: continental Europe, Latin America, Asia beyond Hong Kong, Africa beyond South Africa and Kenya, the Pacific islands, and the Middle East. Nothing on this page describes the position in any of them.

One case is worth stating explicitly, because it is easy to get wrong in the other direction. Pakistan does not regulate social work through its allied health legislation. The Allied Health Professionals Council Act, 2022 lists twenty-five disciplines in Schedule-I, including "Psychology and counseling" at item 24. Social work is not among them, and the word "social" appears nowhere in the Act.³¹ One qualification for anyone planning years ahead: section 2(u) makes the Schedule a notifiable list, of disciplines "included, added or notified by the concerned administrative division or Ministry" and limited to those formally taught by a recognised institution and related to patient care.³¹ Social work is out as enacted, and a ministry rather than the Council would be the body to add it.

A note on international bodies. The International Federation of Social Workers is a federation of national associations, and the International Association of Schools of Social Work an association of educational institutions. They publish the global definition of social work that several accreditors adopt, including the AASW.²⁴ Neither registers anyone or recognises a credential for practice, and membership of either confers no entitlement to practise.

Finding a social worker

If you are choosing a training route, three questions settle more than a prospectus will.

• Which register do you want to be on? Work backwards from it. Approval is jurisdiction-specific even where the award name is identical
• Does that jurisdiction have a clinical class? Where it does, the post-qualifying supervised hours are the long part of the journey, not the degree
• Will you move? Read the two agreements above, and the destination regulator on assessed overseas qualifications, before enrolling rather than after

If you are looking for a social worker instead, ask which register they are on and check it. A degree is not a registration, an accreditation is not a licence, and an evaluation is neither.

TherapyRoute is a clinician-run directory, founded by a registered clinical psychologist. Start with how to find the right therapist.

Last reviewed: August 2026. Jurisdictions covered: the four UK nations, Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Canada, the United States, Australia and Kenya. Requirements change; confirm with the relevant body before applying.

Team TherapyRoute

References

1. [1] Council on Social Work Education, Accreditation Standards: the 2022 EPAS for baccalaureate and master's programs, alongside the 2025 Practice Doctorate Accreditation Standards and standards for post-master's social work fellowships. cswe.org.
2. [2] CSWE and Commission on Accreditation statement on field hours: "CSWE requires 400 hours of field experience for a baccalaureate degree and 900 hours for a master's degree", under the EPAS. CSWE statement, copy hosted by Western Carolina University. wcu.edu.
3. [3] CASWE-ACFTS, Accreditation: "CASWE-ACFTS has a mutual degree recognition agreement with the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) stating that degrees from CASWE-ACFTS and CSWE accredited BSW and MSW programs are considered equivalent"; "CASWE-ACFTS does not play a role in the registration of individual social workers post-graduation"; "We do not accredit doctoral programs". caswe-acfts.ca.
4. [4] CASWE-ACFTS, Educational Policies and Accreditation Standards, March 2021. AS 3.1.1: a BSW "including at least 700 field education practicum hours". AS 3.2.1: the advanced component includes "a field education practicum of at least 450 hours or a thesis or memoire". AS 3.2.2: an MSW for students admitted without a BSW includes a foundational component "equivalent to the content of the BSW curriculum ... and a field education practicum of at least 450 hours". caswe-acfts.ca (PDF).
5. [5] Children and Social Work Act 2017 (c. 16), Part 2. Section 36(1): "A body corporate called Social Work England is established". Sections 40 and 45 empower regulations restricting the use, in relation to social work in England, of specified titles, and offences for failing to comply, triable summarily only and without imprisonment. legislation.gov.uk.
6. [6] HCPC news, The regulation of social workers in England has transferred to Social Work England, 2 December 2019. hcpc-uk.org.
7. [7] Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001 (asp 8), Part 3. Section 43, constitution of the SSSC; section 44, register of social workers and of other social service workers; section 52, use of the title "social worker" etc. legislation.gov.uk.
8. [8] Social Care Wales, Registration: "Most people working in social care in Wales need to register with us", with the public Register and its search. socialcare.wales.
9. [9] Northern Ireland Social Care Council, Registration: the Council's register of the Northern Ireland social care workforce, its Check the Register search, and registrant and employer duties. niscc.info.
10. [10] Mental Health Act 1983, s 114(1): "A local social services authority may approve a person to act as an approved mental health professional"; s 114(2), it "may not approve a registered medical practitioner"; s 114(3), it must be satisfied of appropriate competence in dealing with persons who are suffering from mental disorder. legislation.gov.uk.
11. [11] Mental Health (Approved Mental Health Professionals) (Approval) (England) Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/1206), Schedule 1: the four eligible professions, a registered social worker, a first level nurse registered in the mental health or learning disabilities sub-part, a registered occupational therapist, and a chartered psychologist on the British Psychological Society's register holding a current practising certificate. Schedule 1 names the social work registration body as at 2008. England only; Wales approves under its own instrument. legislation.gov.uk.
12. [12] Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 (Revised), s 4(1), designating fourteen professions including social worker. revisedacts.lawreform.ie.
13. [13] Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 (Revised), ss 79(4) and 80. Section 80(5), as substituted in 2013: a person guilty "is liable on summary conviction to a class A fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or both", a class A fine being not greater than €5,000 (Fines Act 2010). "With intent to deceive" was removed from the core subsections in 2014 and a reasonable-steps defence added. revisedacts.lawreform.ie.
14. [14] CORU Social Workers Registration Board, Social Workers Approved Qualifications: the approved awards at Atlantic Technological University, University College Cork, University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, NUI Galway, IT Sligo, NUI Maynooth and Technological University of the Shannon. Eight institutions, UCD being named under two styles. This page reproduces neither the award titles nor a count of their forms; read the list in full. coru.ie.
15. [15] South African Council for Social Service Professions, Registration: the eight registration categories; the documents required to register as a social worker (certified identity document, proof of highest school grade, certified academic record, certified copy of the BSW, proof of payment); and the governing framework, the Social Service Professions Act 110 of 1978 and Government Notice No. R. 101 (Gazette No. 34020, 18 February 2011). No community service condition appears. Government Notice R. 101 sets none either. It prescribes qualifications in year-courses, and community service is not among its conditions. sacssp.co.za. sacssp.co.za (PDF).
16. [16] SACSSP, Mandate: the Council "derives its regulatory mandate from the provisions of the Social Service Professions Act 110 of 1978", covering registration, education and training, professional conduct and continuing professional development. sacssp.co.za.
17. [17] New Zealand Social Workers Registration Board, Registration: "'Social worker' is a protected title. That means only social workers who are registered by the SWRB can use the title 'social worker'"; who must register; the three qualification pathways; the fit-and-proper assessment and New Zealand Police vetting; the practising certificate, Code of Conduct and CPD requirements; and, on the closed route, "Until 28 February 2026, section 13 of the Act provided a pathway to registration through recognition of prior experience. We are no longer accepting new applications for this registration pathway." swrb.govt.nz.
18. [18] Hong Kong Social Workers Registration Board: the Social Workers Registration Ordinance in effect since 6 June 1997, the Board's mandate "strictly governed by the Ordinance"; "a person whose name does not appear on the Register of registered social workers shall not be entitled to use the title of 'social worker' or its related descriptions"; the lists of recognised local qualifications and the criteria for assessing non-local ones. swrb.org.hk.
19. [19] Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers, Registration Requirements: applicants must "have a degree in social work from a Canadian social work program accredited by the Canadian Association for Social Work Education", or an approved equivalent, or a combination of qualifications and experience the College determines equivalent; those who qualified more than five years before applying must show currency of practice. ocswssw.org.
20. [20] British Columbia College of Social Workers, Clinical Registration: "A registrant in the Clinical class may use the title Registered Clinical Social Worker (RCSW) ... In addition, an RCSW may assess, diagnose and treat mental disorders based on the DSM"; the education, advanced learning and supervision hours requirements, and the ASWB Clinical examination. The page states the requirements without publishing hour figures, which is why none appears here. bccsw.ca.
21. [21] New York State Education Department, Office of the Professions, Licensed Clinical Social Worker: license requirements: "a masters degree in social work (M.S.W.) with at least 12 semester hours of clinical coursework"; "at least 3 years of post M.S.W. supervised experience in diagnosis, psychotherapy and assessment-based treatment planning"; "at least 100 hours of in-person individual or group clinical supervision"; the ASWB Clinical examination; and the three years "may not be reduced, even if the applicant provides more than 2,000 client contact hours in less time". op.nysed.gov.
22. [22] California Board of Behavioral Sciences, Licensed Clinical Social Worker: "Master's degree in Social Work from an accredited school of social work"; "3,000 total supervised hours, over 104 weeks (minimum)"; the California Law and Ethics Exam, which must be passed to receive Associate Clinical Social Worker registration; and the ASWB Clinical Exam. bbs.ca.gov.
23. [23] Association of Social Work Boards, Social Work Licensing Exams: the page's own enumeration, the exams "Test three content areas across all exam categories (Bachelors, Masters, Advanced Generalist, Clinical)", on the 2026 blueprint. "Associate" appears once, in the fee line "Associate, Bachelors, or Masters exam: US$230", not in the enumeration. Also ASWB as the testing organisation supporting boards across the United States and Canada. aswb.org.
24. [24] Australian Association of Social Workers, Australian Social Work Education and Accreditation Standards (ASWEAS), March 2020, version 2.2 as updated August 2023. "In the absence of a legislated regulatory framework in Australia, the social work profession is self-regulating", the AASW being "the body nominated by members, HEPs and the broader professional community to set and maintain standards of professional conduct"; the AQF degree titles BSW, BSW (Hons) and MSW (Qualifying), whose graduates "are professionally qualified as entry-level social workers"; standards 4.1.1 to 4.1.5, 4.3.4, 4.5.5, 4.5.6 and 6.3.2 for section 5's field-education figures; and the adoption of the IFSW and IASSW global definition of social work. aasw.asn.au (PDF).
25. [25] AASW, New Zealand mutual recognition: "The AASW and the New Zealand Social Workers Registration Board (NZSWRB) have a Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) to mutually recognise social workers who are credentialed in Australia or registered in New Zealand"; applicants must also meet the AASW English Language Policy. aasw.asn.au.
26. [26] AASW, Accredited Mental Health Social Worker application criteria: current eligible AASW membership; "at least 2 years' full-time equivalent (FTE) post-qualifying social work experience in a mental health setting within the last 5 years, totalling a minimum of 3,360 hours", full-time being 35 hours per week for 48 weeks per year; matching supervision under the AASW Supervision Standards; the CPD requirement; and demonstrated competence in Focused Psychological Strategies. aasw.asn.au.
27. [27] AASW, Mental health social work: "AMHSWs are recognised providers of mental health services under the Medicare Better Access Scheme and other government-funded schemes and programs". aasw.asn.au.
28. [28] CSWE, International Social Work Degree Recognition and Evaluation Service: the service assesses "comparability of the program objectives ... and level of the applicant's social work education to social work education in the United States" against the 2022 EPAS competencies; "Recognition is necessary to establish qualifications for employment, graduate school admission, membership in the National Association of Social Workers, state licensing, and/or certification". At fetch, form submission and payment were suspended until 31 August 2026. cswe.org.
29. [29] Social Work Professionals Act, 2026 (Kenya), Act No. 1 of 2026, assented 19 February 2026, commenced 10 March 2026. Long title; s 18, qualifications for registration, including recognition of equivalent courses and examinations taken outside Kenya; s 27, title of Registered Social Work Professional; s 38, penalty for unauthorised use; s 42, interim council within twelve months. kenyalaw.org.
30. [30] University of Nairobi, Department of Sociology, Social Work and African Women Studies, Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Work: taught since 1976; four years; 41 taught courses of 45 contact hours plus three practicum courses; not less than 1,200 hours of field practicum; ten weeks of external agency attachment per practicum. sociology.uonbi.ac.ke.
31. [31] Allied Health Professionals Council Act, 2022 (Pakistan), Schedule-I (see sections 2(a), 10, 17 and 25), "List of disciplines categorized as allied health professionals": twenty-five items, item 24 being "Psychology and counseling". A case-insensitive search of the full extracted Act (19 pages, 41,086 characters) returns zero occurrences of "social". Also s 2(u): the list is the disciplines "as included, added or notified by the concerned administrative division or Ministry, in Schedule-I to this Act; and shall include disciplines that are formally taught by a recognized institution and are related to patient care". PDF text extracted this session. pakistancode.gov.pk (PDF).
32. [32] CSWE, Accreditation FAQs: "CSWE does not currently accredit social work programs in Canada", and graduates of Canadian programmes accredited by CASWE "are recognized through a memorandum of understanding as having earned a degree equivalent to graduates from a CSWE-BOA-accredited program". The American party publishes as a memorandum of understanding what the Canadian party publishes as a mutual degree recognition agreement. cswe.org.
33. [33] Social Work England, Qualifying education and training standards 2021, standard 2.1: "Ensure that students spend at least 200 days (including up to 30 skills days) gaining different experiences and learning in practice settings." socialworkengland.org.uk (PDF).
34. [34] Scottish Social Services Council, Scottish Requirements for Social Work Education, December 2024, subsection R: "Ensure that all social work students spend a minimum of 180 days in practice learning." That requirement takes effect in September 2027. Appendix two records the wording still in force: "Make sure that all social work students spend at least 200 days in practice learning, of which at least 160 must be spent in supervised direct practice in service delivery settings." sssc.uk.com (PDF).
35. [35] Social Care Wales, Framework for the Degree in Social Work in Wales 2021, rule 6: the student must have "completed at least 1,400 hours of assessed practical training in social work", of which at least one practice learning opportunity of "not less than 560 hours" was in a Local Social Services Authority. The separate 1,200-hour figure in the same document is academic learning, not practice. socialcare.wales (PDF).
36. [36] Northern Ireland Social Care Council, Practice Learning Requirements for the Degree in Social Work, paragraph 4.6: students without credits for prior experiential learning "will normally undertake 225 days of practice learning, of which: 25 days must be spent in preparation for direct work; 185 days must be in direct supervised practice; and 15 days to be used for individual practice development." The separate Northern Ireland Framework Specification for the Degree states no day figure; it is this document that carries it. learningzone.niscc.info (PDF).
37. [37] CORU Social Workers Registration Board, Criteria for Education and Training Programmes, criterion 2.2: "The programme must ensure that each student completes 1000 hours of placement, 350 hours of which must be in one block and full time". coru.ie (PDF).
38. [38] Social Workers Registration Board of New Zealand, SWRB Education Standards, 3.3.1, field education length: placements will "total a minimum of 900 hours across 120 to 150 days" and "be the equivalent of at least three (3) days per week"; 3.3.2: "One placement must be for a minimum of the equivalent of 375 hours/50 full-time days." The widely quoted 120-day figure belongs to the superseded 2017 Programme Recognition Standards. swrb.govt.nz (PDF).
39. [39] Social Workers Registration Board (Hong Kong), Principles, Criteria and Standards for Recognizing Qualifications in Social Work, 8th edition, 4.1.5(b), fieldwork placement minimum contact hours: "Diploma Programme: 700; Degree Programme: 800". The placement "must be of direct social work practice". swrb.org.hk (PDF).
40. [40] South African Council for Social Service Professions, Norms and Standards for the Bachelor of Social Work, 4.4.2(a): "Over the four years, students complete and provide evidence of at least 700 hours of actual social work in the field (excluding report writing)." The excluding-report-writing qualifier travels with the figure. sacssp.co.za (PDF).