Universities Cooperate to Bring Master's Degree In Social Work to Contra Costa County

A new master's degree in social work, developed to meet the demand in Contra Costa and Alameda counties, will begin this fall at the Contra Costa Campus of California State University Hayward. In September the first class of up to 25 students will start the new three-year master's program, offered jointly through the California State universities at Hayward and Long Beach.

Representatives of Contra Costa's Department of Employment and Human Services and the Alameda County Social Services Department previously had identified the social work master's degree program as a key educational need during discussions with Cal State Hayward personnel. The training will prepare social services professionals for careers in counseling, child assessment, and working with groups with special needs, such as youth and the elderly.

While Cal State Hayward has not yet established a graduate social work program, the local state university wanted to comply with the request and arranged to offer the degree jointly with CSU Long Beach, which offers the master's degree through distance learning.

Area students will attend classes at the CSUH Concord Campus, viewing instruction through interactive compressed video in real time. The Concord students also will be linked to another class enrolled at Cal State Humboldt. Sessions will be held on Saturdays to accommodate full-time working professionals.

A site coordinator will participate in the classes. Long Beach faculty will come to the Cal State Hayward campus in Concord to meet with students several times each semester.

Local educators are optimistic the collaboration will be successful because there has been an 87 percent completion rate for students previously enrolled in this CSU Long Beach distance learning program. Long Beach also has provided this fully accredited master's degree in social work to CSU Chico and CSU Bakersfield. Both universities now have their own accredited programs.