The School of Social Work offers a Certificate in Social Work Administration for social workers who received their MSW degree with a specialization in clinical or direct practice and who are now in or interested in entering the administrative ranks.
The Certificate includes four courses: two Administration Practice courses provided for MSW Administration students, and electives in financial management and information systems. The electives are taught by experienced community practitioners or offered through equivalent courses in SDSU departments such as Public Administration. Details are at the Certificate Courses link. To accommodate the work schedules of agency staff, classes typically meet once a week from 4:00 to 6:40 p.m.
Program Goals
- Enhance the skills and career prospects for MSWs who have moved into, or are interested in moving into, administrative positions
- Augment the talent pools of promotable mangers and leaders with advanced administration knowledge and skills as well as a strong grounding in clinical practice
- Contribute to increasing the effectiveness of human service organizations in terms of client outcomes and management capacity
Who Should Apply
- MSWs who have recently been promoted to an administrative position
- Direct service practitioners interested in enhancing their leadership and management capabilities
- MSWs with little formal training in administrative practice
- Other human services professionals who would like to add maximum value to their organizations when they are promoted to management levels
Courses
SW 740: MANAGING FOR PERFORMANCE
- Management Competencies
- Program design
- Proposal development
- Evidence-based programming
- Logic models
- Management auditing
- Human resource management
- Strategic planning & management
- Marketing & public relations
- Contracting in human services
SW 745: LEADING FOR CHANGE
- Change leadership
- Contingency approaches to leadership
- Creating a learning culture
- Cutback management
- Evidence-based management
- Leadership competencies
- Leadership styles
- Organizational change processes
- Supervision and transitioning into supervision
- Transformational leadership
SW 758: FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT & RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
- Break even analysis
- Budgets: line item, program, performance, functional
- Budget monitoring & control
- Fund development
- Cost allocation & analysis
- Financial analysis & financial statements
- Accounting standards & guidelines
- Managing multiple funding sources
- Revenue forecasting
SW 758: FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT & RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
- Information systems design
- Current human services software
- Program evaluation
- Balanced scorecards
- Measuring effectiveness, efficiency, and quality
- Outcomes and outputs
- Principles & processes of knowledge management
- Using data to drive decisions
Application Procedure
- Open University (non-SDSU) students: contact Dr. Tom Packard (tpackard@mail.sdsu.edu), and visit the Open University web page for more information on class registration.
- Applicants who are not current SDSU MSW students will also need to apply to SDSU through CalState Apply.
- Current MSW Administration students may receive the certificate if they also complete the two elective courses.
Questions?
For additional information, contact Dr. Packard (tpackard@mail.sdsu.edu or visit this program at the SDSU College of Extended Studies site.
