The value of social worker-trainee relations in pandemic time from Covid-19

The health emergency posed a real challenge for field training for social work students. Social workers supervisors and interns have been called upon to develop together, even more so than in the past, their ability to critically reflect on the role, characteristics, functions, theories, principles and methods of social work in light of the important and sudden transformations of the environment in which the processes of helping individuals, groups and communities are developed. The study came about from the need to understand the strengths, limits and potential inherent in projects of field training in which the trainee carries out their activities in person, but in a scenario characterised by profound transformations and alterations of the traditional work context. The contribution proposes the results of a survey carried out within the framework of the degree course in Social Sciences and Social Service at the Ca’ Foscari University. The research was conducted through the use of qualitative tools and involved university traineeship tutors, supervisors and students engaged in in-person practical training during the second and third Covid-19 pandemic waves. It highlights some processes through which during the health emergency the relational dimension of social work was reformulated while retaining its central role.