Pretoria: Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini has invited unemployed social workers to register on a new database aimed at keeping a record of all unemployed qualified social workers in the country.

Dlamini said the database will be used to lobby for funds to create social work posts that are required within the public service. Currently, there are 9 456 social workers in the employ of government.

“The Unemployed Social Workers Database will also inform the department about the number of unemployed social workers who have studied outside the Social Development scholarship programme. This is in response to the issue raised by communities and the media that there are qualified social workers who are unemployed,” Dlamini said.

The Government Draft Scarce Skills and Policy Framework of 2003 recognized social work as a scarce skill and mandated the development of strategies to facilitate the recruitment and retention of such scarce skills.

The Department of Social Development has been the main driver in the implementation of this social policy. In addition, the National Development Plan also refers to social work as a scarce skill and indicates that 60 000 social workers will be needed by 2030 to serve the population.