The purpose of Bachelor research work »The Role of Social Educator in Ljubljana Centre for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing«, (Slovenia), is to analyze the professional profile and competencies of social educators, and their employability at various workplaces, to present the roles and work tasks of those working as counsellors in the counselling service and as residential unit educators (within Secondary School and Residential Unit). Social educators work with the Deaf and hard of hearing, children and adolescents with speech and language difficulties, with Autistic Spectrum Disorders, parents, special education teachers and headteachers, and teachers from mainstream schools. In the empirical part of this qualitative research, I conducted four interviews with social educators employed at Ljubljana Centre, and researched their work tasks, the problems they face, professional competencies they need in their workplaces, the impact of children's complex needs on their work, on which tasks they experience a greater, and on which tasks a lesser sense of competence. The identified problems include the demanding heterogeneous population with associated disorders, inconsistency of educational approaches within the Centre, working with parents of children with special needs, stress due to overwork, intensity of work, and organization problems. Weaker professional competencies have been reported in the fields of personal growth (weak professional confidence and self-esteem), methods of working with other groups of children with special needs, providing learning assistance, motivating adolescents, preventing addictions in vulnerable groups, working with parents, and teamwork. During their studies and in the first years at the workplace, the interviewees acquired all key professional competencies in accordance with the International Association for Social Education - AIEJI, namely: intervention competencies, evaluation skills and reflection competencies, and to a large extent: establishing a working relationship, social and communication competencies and organizational skills. This research is a contribution to a better understanding of professional competencies of the social educator and the need for lifelong learning.
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