Katarzyna Nowosad

The aim of the article is to present the life and professional plans of university students graduating in the conditions of a pandemic and virtualization of the education process. Social and economic conditions, the demand for various professions and specializations on the labor market are becoming an important determinant of creating their own future by university graduates preparing for transition to the labor market. The presented data are the result of empirical research conducted in numerous and diverse academic environments and in various fields of study. The formulated conclusions may serve not only the process of academic education, but also to build individual professional development paths for people graduating from higher education.

Working in the support professions is associated with a heavy mental and emotional burden. Social workers face human tragedy, difficult situations, a shortage of resources, and the need to make extremely responsible decisions regarding people’s fate, and they may even be exposed to aggression from demanding clients. These factors may cause unpleasant experiences and emotional tensions among social workers, disrupting the course and structure of professional activities. Self-efficacy may help in coping with this burden. It constitutes the belief that one has the skills allowing them to cope better with problems (cf. Zientek, 2006; Bandura, 2007; Wierzejska, 2018). The article aims, therefore, to determine the role of self-efficacy in explaining the perceived workload of social workers. The obtained research results indicate that social workers’ self-efficacy is a significant predictor of their sense of workload. Keywords: Social worker, workload, self-efficacy

Nowadays, the role of work from the point of view of an individual and the society is assessed very highly, which is indicated by many empirical analyzes. It makes people happy about their lives, helps them meet their development needs, and have a sense of duty to one's family, group and society. Therefore, work appears to be a way to meet various needs (material, social, moral, prestigious, stabilizing or creative), sometimes strong enough to be the reason for migration from one's home country. The subject of the presented empirical research are aspects of work valued by those employed in Poland and abroad. In order to determine which aspects of work the surveyed people value the most, the diagnostic survey method was used, which was carried out using the survey technique. The study covered 399 people, including 200 Poles working in the UK and 199 people employed in the country. The conducted analyzes are comparative studies.