social work students, work duty, volunteering, Covid-19, motivation

Covid-19 brought great challenges to social work. One of these challenges was volunteering and the work duty of a social work student in practice in the Czech Republic. Due to the topicality of the experience, this topic is not researched. The aim of the chapter is to analyze the experience of social work students of the Faculty of Social Studies of the University of Ostrava gained during their performance of work duty or volunteering in the "first wave" of the Covid 19 pandemic and to draw recommendations for social work educators. The research is based on a qualitative research strategy mapping the lived experience of 33 students of social work. Data are analyzed using constructivist approaches to data analysis, specifically thematic analysis and grounded theory. The results of the research revealed four positions of motivation for the performance of social work, namely, the instrumental, professional, solidarity and holistic ones. The chapter sets out the implications for social work.