Primi risultati di un’indagine empirica sulla qualità percepita da parte degli studenti dell’Università di Cassino. Le attività di tirocinio in epoca di pandemia

Traineeships in social worker training are a process of learning the professional role in a direct and participatory way, through professional experience in the field. The state of emergency caused by the Coronavirus forced Universities to revise the organization of traineeship activities by allowing students to carry out their internship at a distance with the support of internal tutors and institutions with social workers available for supervision. The aim of the research is to evaluate the quality of this activity during the pandemics. The data were collected through the administration of ad hoc questionnaires used in previous years, but modified in light of the new ways of carrying out the practical traineeship. More than 80% of students (L-39 and LM-87) are satisfied with the way the «traineeship» was carried out, both internal and external, as it was considered very interesting and educational. The strong points are confirmed in both degree courses (student/tutor ratio; professionalism and competence, availability), but critical issues emerge with regard to the distance mode introduced as a result of the pandemics; this mode inevitably involves a lack of direct contact with field work and is less effective in helping students understand the profession they are going to perform. It is not possible to exclude the experiential importance of the traineeship in the field; however, the online mode, while referring to a choice to be made only if urgent and necessary, has made it possible not to block the system and to graduate on time the students involved.