is social work a stem career? (solved)
Is social work a stem career, in this post we’re going to discuss this in detail about this subject.
is social work a stem career?
To consider social work as a stem major or career at least I must include some mathematics and Engineering aspects but unfortunately, social work doesn’t have any of these Previews subject. So for this reason it is not a stem career.
Social workers Focus on all aspects of social jobs that care about Humanity. That being said working by reacting with people and providing them a hand and support.
While stem occupations Focus on science majors combining technology, engineering, and mathematics to get finally a technical product or a service.
But honestly, these are not the definite reasons why social work is not a stem career, because there are some occupations that are so close to social work like psychology, and are considered stem occupations. So it is all base on legislation
For instance, if I ask you if Dentistry is a stem major or not you would normally respond with yes, is a stem major. But in fact, Dentistry is still on the waiting list to be aggregated as a stem occupation. That being said is it still not included with stem other occupations.
But in general social science works, are mostly artistic and linguistics majors. Even if they are labeled with the term of science ” social science” that will not never mean they are stem depending on the legislation of educated system elaborate.
In the next paragraph, we’re going to discover the real and logical reason that makes social science or work not considered a stem occupation
Why social work is not a stem major
Before responding to this question we have to understand what is the stem?
STEM is an abbreviation or acronym term for science engineering technology and Mathematics. So to consider a major or occupation as a stem field at least it has to include one of these 4 Concepts.
So our principal question or goal is to prove if public health is a stem or not, by responding to the 4 following questions:
- is it Social work a science?
- Does social work involve technology?
- is social work engineering?
- is social work mathematics field?
So let’s go and try to respond to each question, one by one…
1 – Is Social work a science?
It is hard to determine and say that social science is an independent science by itself, this question is a little bit philosophical. But in general social science is a field that combines multiple science occupations like psychology communication and other domains.
but when we compare it to the stem occupation like mechanical, chemical, or electrical engineering will find a big difference in the term of science approximation. Mechanical or chemical Engineers have their proper basic knowledge information.
That being said they study the very specific knowledge, Meaning using specific mathematics and physics equations that explain the specific domain.
Unlike social science which is combining different science fields and gathering them together into one closer called social science.
This is might be the one reason that makes social science not included as a stem occupation. But the following reason is going to be more clear reasonable for you.
Does social work involve technology?
The second killer reason that makes social science expelled from being a stem occupation is simply it doesn’t involve technology like any other stem occupation. That being said social scientists only have some kind of Technology as normal people do.
But they would never be the Principal contributor to creating new platforms and Technologies like mechanical, electrical computer science engineers. these occupations are considered Stem because they produce machines and technologies that we use today including cars computers planes and even rockets.
So the principal reason to be aggregated in the stem occupation is to have an interesting role in Technology, which is being a producer not a consumer-like social science and in this case do.
this is not an offense but just a clarification about the difference between stem and social science.
you could read this article: superiority stem majors: 7 things you should know
Is social work engineering?
The third reason is a social science is not an engineering occupation. Social science jobs are made to communicate and try to build a bridge of communication between different kinds of popularity not designing machines or systems engineers do.
So engineering is so important pillar in the stem, you must have the ability and the role to design machines, platforms, or even systems that people can benefit from.
For instance, computer Engineers design programs and even technical guidance people can use. Social scientist communicates with people and get feedback from them then react based on this feedback which is not an engineering job.
It is a psychological job that requires to have empathy.
is social work a mathematics field?
The last reason that makes social science expelled from being a stem application is not studying or focusing on math, social scientists don’t focus at all or use math except the basic arithmetics methods that anyone can use or we use on our daily basis life.
But, when we look at the same occupation like engineering or medicine, before getting this job occupation students to have to study a lot of math including advanced math topics like calculus, algebra, statistics, and probability.
so for this reason social science is considered a Humanity topic, not a stem occupation.
But don’t worry if you are interested to study social science and stay in the stem field, there are some careers that combine social science work and stem subjects that will be going to list below.
So if you are interested to look for alternative careers here are the 5 interesting stem and closed ones for a social science major
5 stem careers that involve a lot of social work
1- public health
So the principal job of Public Health is to protect happening dramatic accidents or injuries in the future, especially in the food domain where people can get easily intoxicated. So, you will be checking the public resources if they conform to the health consigns to protect public health life.
like sector fume restaurants or buildings, checking food quality in restaurants, etc.
2 – teacher
it will be a great opportunity to become a teacher for elementary school, in stem occupations like math, science or biology are less condensed in math. You just have to get enough credentials to join the teaching profession and have enough passion for this job.
3 – medical social worker
As a medical patient, the principal, the goal will be to educate patients and families about how they should take the treatment and at the right time. And given families enough resources and support. This profession is close to public health, but it requires studying biology, science, and some math if you are ready to sacrifice.
4 – nurse
Becoming a nurse is a good option but is tough to join, it requires being good at math, and science topics. But the beauty about nursing is it full of social science activities you can enjoy with patent and their families.
5 – management information system
If you like to go away from the medical and science world, technology will be a good option. In this case, being a manager of an information system will be a good option if yoiu like to programming. So why not test yourself with coding, maybe you fall in love with it.
