Professional Competence for Customer Contacts in Social Services (5 cr)

Objective

The students will be familiar with their professional opportunities and role within work with customers and in the promotion of wellbeing.
They will understand the importance and impact of respecting customers as the basis of ethical guidance within case management and their role within this process.
Students will become familiar with the customer case management process.
They will know what multi-professional work and working within networks mean.
They will become familiar with the opportunities offered by digital services and applications within social services and case management.

Other recommended studies: to be discussed with the study counsellor in the personal study plan review

Content

Working in social services as a profession, required competences within social services and early years education training, guidance and case management as a profession, customer-centredness, multi-professionalism and networks within social services work, introduction to the concept of social services case management, introduction to the concept of green care.

Location and time

8 / 2025 - 12 / 2025

Materials

Supplementary materials for the course may include the following works:

Raatikainen, E., Rahikka, A., Saarnio, T., & Vepsä, P. (2020). Ammattina sosionomi. Helsinki: Sanoma Pro Oy.

Mönkkönen, K. (2018). Vuorovaikutus asiakastyössä. Asiakkaan kohtaaminen sosiaali- ja terveysalalla. Gaudeamus.

Pyykönen, A.-M. (2021). Sähköinen asiointi sosiaalityössä. In Pehkonen, A., Pyykönen, A.-M., & Okulov, S. (2021). Sosiaalisesti kestävä Kainuu (pp. 142-164). Kuopio: University of Eastern Finland.

Sosiaali- ja terveysministeriö. (2017). Sosiaalihuoltolain soveltamisopas. Helsinki: Sosiaali- ja terveysministeriö. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-00-3959-2

You can find the course literature in Reppu

Teaching methods

The course includes studying in the Reppu learning environment. There will be video lectures, assignments, and exams. Additionally, there will be approximately 12.5 hours of in-person instruction at the Kajaani campus

Employer connections

Representatives from the professional field will visit the course

Exam schedules

The course exams are available in the Reppu learning environment. You can find the specific exam dates in Reppu.

Student workload

The course is worth 5 ECTS credits. One ECTS credit corresponds to approximately 27 hours of student work, totaling around 135 hours of student work.

There will be approximately 12.5 hours of in-person instruction at the Kajaani campus, which includes teaching hours and participation in the VISIT KAMK day.

Further information

More information about the course can be found in Reppu

Evaluation scale

0 - 5

Assessment methods and criteria

The course is graded on a scale of 0-5: excellent (5), good (4 or 3), satisfactory (2 or 1), and fail (0)

Further information

The course involves 135 hours of studyThe course includes online lectures / video materials (10 h) contact teaching / exercises / simulations / project:contact teaching, group instruction 8 h, work based assignment linked to case management, cooperating in a network, customer encounters/guidance - the course teacher will determine the tasks in more detail
Literature: Further literature to be announced by the course teacher.
Assessment 0-5