Competence approach to multicultural training of specialists in the social sphere

The article reveals the view on professional training of specialists in the social sphere from the point of view of the necessity of forming multicultural competence as an integral part of professional competence. Modern European social education systems are fully reflective of various social processes and take into account the tendencies towards flexible and prompt improvement and adaptation of training of social professionals in accordance with time requirements. In such circumstances, each multicultural situation that a social worker is dealing with, must be analyzed in close correlation with the economic and geopolitical problems that a particular state is dealing with. In Europe, the training of social workers for work in a multicultural environment is carried out in the framework of continuing education and is offered in the form of various seminars, courses, internships, training modules, etc. Multicultural competence of a social worker is a complex, professional and personal formation formed in the process of professional training on the basis of the specialist's tolerance, characterized by their awareness of their own multicultural identity and readiness to solve professional problems of constructive interaction with representatives of other cultural groups. There are two approaches to the formation of multicultural competence of a social worker: the deepening of multicultural competence on the basis of already acquired professional knowledge and skills; the formation of multicultural competence "from scratch". Criteria of multicultural competence of a social worker are cognitive, value-motivational and activity-behavioral levels. Specialists in the social sphere often encounter such difficulties in terms of professional interference in the multicultural environment: lack of understanding of individual and group behavior of clients, the tendency to explain the non-acceptance by clients of certain norms of behavior by cultural differences and specifics; communication difficulties that affect on the effectiveness of social intervention; understanding the ineffectiveness of social policy, the realization of which goals are social workers.