SERVICE-LEARNING AS A DIDACTIC STRATEGY FOR PROFESSIONALIZATION, SUSTAINABILITY AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION. AN EXPERIENCE IN THE DEGREE OF SOCIAL EDUCATION

Abstract

The role of Higher Education is to train the professionals that society needs at each moment, specialization and sector; on the other hand, to favor their labor insertion and/or employability. Professionals and committed citizens who intervene and act in reality as agents of transformation and social change towards sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to contextualize and describe a Service-Learning project in the Social Education degree (University of Extremadura) aimed at the acquisition of professional skills through the active participation of students in a real experience associated with community service. Through this experiential learning the student explores the potential for improvement of the non-profit welfare entities of the Third Sector, which work in their close environment, while developing generic and specific skills necessary for job performance, and for the exercise of a participative and supportive citizenship.