Desarrollo de competencias emocionales para educadores sociales: resultados de la aplicación de un programa formativo

The development of emotional competences is promoted as a key strategy to favour personal and social well-being and to face the challenges of professionals in the educational field. Current socio-educational needs require professionals who are willing to work in different contexts, emerging fields and with different groups, which requires new competences that are not always addressed in university curricula. The aim of this research is not only to highlight training needs, but also to train Social Education professionals in Emotional Education, starting from a prior detection of needs and designing and evaluating a training programme. For this purpose, within the framework of an evaluative research, an ex post facto study is proposed to analyse the training needs in the field of Emotional Competences in students of the Degree in Social Education at the University of Salamanca, also taking into account life satisfaction. Results show the relevance of Emotional Education in higher education, as it is a self-perceived need of the participants, as well as an improvement in the assessed level of competence and satisfaction with life. In conclusion, the Bachelor students are aware of the benefits of emotional education and of the need to get involved in training processes. The convenience of incorporating explicit intervention programmes in the curricula of future Social Education professionals and the importance of promoting training actions related to the development of socioemotional competences are discussed.