**3. Social work education: from a Swedish perspective**

The social work programme in Sweden [14] consists of 3.5 years, divided into seven semesters, six on bachelor level and one semester on advanced/master level. During the fifth semester, students, during supervision from practitioners and lecturers, will have the opportunity to gain experiences from the practical field of social work by spending time at one or several social work placements. During the last semester, there are some optional courses at advanced level. Even thou there is a national curriculum of the programme, there are options for each university and its lecturer providing the social work programme, to form the separate courses of curriculum. This structure gives several opportunities to use creative teaching methods in different courses at various levels.

Demands on efficiency and cost-benefits have increased in general, which make the discussion of how to handle ethical dilemmas even more important. In Sweden, which is a small country who has been known for its universal welfare policy, in general, cutdowns in public services and support, for example, have led to changes in eldercare and care of persons with disabilities and increased the need of family support [15–17].

Important values as a professional in social work, from a Swedish perspective, is independency, autonomy and the possibility for users to choose the services provided as well as the persons or organization who should be the main care giver. User perspective and participation of those who is in need of the services and support offered is an important value even for managers [18, 19]. These values have affected the social work programme as well, and specific courses have been developed where creative teaching methods are used and users/user representatives are taking part [20].
