Training in competencies for the Social Work program at the Universidad de La Guajira: An open way to diversity and education

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to characterize the training process of the Social Work Program at the Universidad de La Guajira (Colombia), from a competency-based training approach. The theoretical guidelines state that training by means of generic and specific competences in higher education responds to the students skills and productive life as well as to the needs of a given context. And that such training is enriched by their cultural conditions. The methodology is ethnographic, with a design based on the triangulation of information. The results indicate that a new approach is required for the training of competences in the Social Work Program, where the curricular processes are articulated to research and to the organization of the academic activities so that they end in better results in state tests and in the improved quality of education at the Universidad de La Guajira. The above, points to the need to intervene and investigate the factors associated with training by competences, since the training process must be in accordance with disciplinary, research, professional, social and work requirements and, of course, with the sociocultural context, because it is there that social imaginaries and practices in everyday life occur.