Social workers work within communities and sometimes clinic facilities supporting families and individuals in various circumstances. A human services degree can be applied to social work, where degree holders can use their knowledge of community resources, advocacy, participant empowerment and community networking to benefit community support organizations. Generally, entry-level social workers with a human services degree will start by administering and overseeing key community services, such as food stamp services.
Because of the diversity of topics encompassed within a human services degree, most degree holders will be eligible for entry-level psychologist jobs. Psychologists are normally required in community organizations (closely linked with social work careers), clinics and hospitals. However, human services degree holders cannot take on a full role of a psychologist without a master's degree or an additional qualification in psychology. Instead, they work in assisting psychology departments and developing their skills in the field. Once experience has been gained in a psychologist assistant field, human services degree holders can pursue a master's degree to further their career or take additional courses to fully qualify in the field of psychology.
Counseling careers for human services degree holders involve working closely with community services, social workers and psychologists. Counselors normally assist individuals with drug abuse issues or work closely with families and children. An additional degree, such as a master's degree in human services with additional counseling coursework, is required to work in clinical counseling services. Assistant jobs are normally available in counseling to human services graduates.
A human services degree is applicable for supervisory careers or jobs. Again, the job role will generally be based around community services, social work or psychology, but is focused on maintaining, administering and supervising key services that an organization delivers. Because the role is not specialized to a certain subject (such as a psychologist career, which would require a degree in the field of psychology), human services graduates can start from entry level and work their way into higher paid or more challenging supervisory roles.