The Role of Self-Education in the Development of Social Skills of Future Social Workers

The article reveals the essence of self-education and its importance in the development of social skills in future social workers. We interpret the «soft skills» of the future social worker as his universal, super-professional skills (general competences), which provide him with harmonious adaptation in society and successful career growth. It was determined that the development of the «soft skills» of the future social worker involves an integrative qualitative change in the following components: social-communicative and cognitive skills, personality traits and qualities, and his emotional intelligence.We consider the self-education of the future social worker as an educational activity managed by him, the final result of which is the qualitative transformation of his personality, which involves the acquisition of a new system of knowledge and the development of his abilities in the spectrum of achieving professional and social competence.It has been proven that the way to the systematic and planned development of «soft skills» in future social workers lies in the plane of their continuous self-education. It was concluded that self-education is correlated with the development of social skills «soft skills» in future social workers. The more active self-education, the more effective social skills. At the same time, well-developed social skills are an important condition for effective self-education. An important task of the institution of higher education is to help the future social worker learn to independently develop an individual plan of his own self-education and at the same time construct a personal portfolio of social skills development.