Social workers set to grow by 1.45 million

China has set a target of training 1.45 million social workers by 2020 to promote the country's social services, a social work administration official said on Monday, one day before World Social Work Day.

"To fill the gap, we are going to work with educational departments to encourage more universities to open social work programs and to recruit more students," said Huang Shengwei, deputy director-general of the Department of Social Work at the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Training more young professionals will strengthen the foundation of social work in China, Huang added.