This paper addresses a key issue in the development of youth-focused social work: the role of digital skills in the relationship between young people and social workers who work with these native digital users. To this end, we analysed data from the International Digital Economy and Society Index 2019 and Eurostat. Information from the sixth European Working Conditions Survey and a survey conducted by the Social Care Institute for Excellence and the British Association of Social Workers supported the empirical analysis. The main findings reveal a gap between the level of digital skills required in the labour market and the actual level of digital skills in both young people and social workers, despite efforts by both groups to improve their skills. Initiatives to foster digital skills are therefore recommended to bridge this digital divide. Lastly, it was concluded that both groups could act as mutual drivers of digital transformation.

The present paper intends to give an overview of how students and lecturers of the Faculty of Social Work at Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) experienced and faced the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Throughout the paper, it will be explained what measures were taken, the effects that these measures had on the academic community, the challenges of becoming digital for most of the lecturers and students. The paper will conclude by reflecting on the new opportunities that the context paves the way for, and the insights gained, lessons learnt and ideas to put in action for the future.

Social policies and welfare state in their different configurations are not neutral. Groups and individuals labeled as of higher risk have been prioritized to youngsters who in most of the cases have become unattended. In this article we value whether or not a youth-based approach in welfare policies should be considered and what would be the implications for social work in its double dimension of profession and particularly as an academic discipline For this purpose we will analyze the basic elements a youth centered welfare approach should have focussing our attention on social work education.

This paper presents a comparative analysis of two reports by the UN Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, one for Spain and one for the UK. In both countries, austerity policies were introduced following the banking crisis of 2008. The UN Rapporteur reports highlight the damage that was done by welfare retrenchment. In particular, the reports document the impact of austerity on the most vulnerable individuals and communities. The paper uses Somers' (2008) conceptual model of citizenship as the basis for a comparative analysis of two reports. Somers' (2008) model of citizenship is a triadic one which sees the state, market and civil society as competing elements. Each one can serve to regulate and limit the influence or excesses of the other two. Somers argues that neoliberalism has seen the dominance of the market at the expense of the role of the state and the institutions of civil society. Austerity policies saw the market dominating. Having examined the context of the two reports and their conclusions, the paper discussed the implications for individual social workers’ practice and the role of social work as a profession in tackling poverty and marginalisation.

(2020). Young people and social work part II. Social Work Education: Vol. 39, Young people and social work education (part II): The role of digital skills, pp. 703-705.