Social worker Larry Emil Alicea warned on Friday that the closure of the master’s degree scholarship program in Social Work at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) will affect the recruitment of professionals for the Department of the Family, which has vacant positions and regions without supervision. Alicea also denounced that some graduates have not been recruited yet and that some professionals were assigned to areas different from their training, despite a collaborative agreement promising training and recruitment in the Department of the Family.
The closure of the program means that no new students are being admitted, which is critical for the country as social workers are leaving the Department of the Family and the program ensures a new intake of personnel every two years. Alicea also stated that the Department of Labor lacks personnel.