社會工作長久以來被視為是處理特定社會福利問題的專業，在臺灣也是如此。隨著1997年社會工作師法的制訂，政府法令強化了社會工作師的地位與發展，但社會工作也喪失了決定教學內容的自主性，2007年社工師法的修訂更加強化了此一趨勢，產生了三大問題：第壹、為了攫取快速成長的社工職場，一些短期學分班出現並排擠了正式四年的大學社工教育；第貳、技術訓練成為社工教育的核心，諸如培力、反歧視、社會正義與人權等本質性議題受到忽視；最後，結果社會工作者也逐漸失去了批判思考與反省的能力。2000年之後大陸也迅速地建立起其社工教育與證照體系，華語社會的社會工作者越來越有可能涉入跨境事務的處理、交流、甚至就業，最後本文結論未來臺灣社會工作者應具備三方面的能力：瞭解當地問題與全球脈動關係的能力、組織服務與資源以解決問題的能力、以及促進人際合作以彰顯社會正義與人權的能力。

Social work has long been a profession dealing with welfare problems in a given society that is especially true in the case of Taiwan since the profession is fostering under governmental regulation and licensing. The 1997 Act for Professional Social Workers is the first step to confirm social work as a profession, while social work also loses its autonomy to decide teaching contents. Three problems are emerging in this context. First, in order to catch up with the growth of social workers' job market, a lot of short-term programs are established to fulfil the minimum requirement of courses and credits, which crowds out comprehensive social work education in universities. Second, skill training, instead of the fundamentals of social work (e.g. empowerment, anti-discrimination, social justice and human rights), becomes the heart of social work education. Third, and most importantly, social workers are increasingly declining in their competence of critical thinking and self-reflection. As China also establishes its own social work education and governmental licensing system, social workers are much likely to engage in matters across borders of Chinese-speaking societies. The critical issues we need to think about the future competences of social workers in Taiwan, located in Chinese-speaking societies, will include: 1. the ability to understand local problems in the globalizing world; 2. the ability to develop organizations and resources for social needs; and 3. the ability to promote social justice and human right through interpersonal collaboration.