Student: Ragub Mikayilov Faculty: Culturology Subject

Azerbaijan State University
of Culture and Arts

Topic: History of social work in Azerbaijan
Student: Ragub Mikayilov
Faculty: Culturology
Subject: Social Work
Group: Sw 22 B
Course: 2
Teacher: Nushaba Babayeva
Subject: Business and academic communication in a foreign language
Social work, as we know today is a young profession in Azerbaijan. But the history of systemized charity which initiated social work everywhere also has old roots in Azerbaijan coming from the pre-Soviet era. After the Communists regime was established in Azerbaijan all individual philanthropy efforts were eliminated. During the Soviet time duties of social workers were delivered by volunteers of Communist Party, Trade Unions and social services assistants who had secondary school education.
In early 2000^th social work concept started re-emerging and the first generation of social workers was trained in the USA through Open Society Foundation Social Work Fellowship Program. Upon their return home, these alumni, the pioneers of social work played a crucial role in the establishment of social work profession and education programs. In 2005, the first formal social work training program, master in social work, and in 2008 the first social work bachelor programs were established in the Baku State University. Later on other universities in the country started their social work programs and currently, there are eight universities in Azerbaijan which have social work master and bachelor degree programs. Five of these universities are located in a capital city, Baku and the rest in small cities of Azerbaijan.
In 2012, the social work profession in Azerbaijan for the first time was recognized by the Law on Social Services. The law has a requirement that in order to call oneself a social a social worker, they need to have at least a bachelor level education. Following after the law, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection jointly with the World Bank developed the national standards and criteria for social workers in 2013-2014. The purpose of this paper is to give a brief background of the history of philanthropy, recent history and current situation of social work in Azerbaijan.