Abstract: It is a must to develop social cause and cultivate a number of highquality professional social work talents for the purpose of strengthening and innovating social management so as to push ahead social construction and social management with the focus on safeguard and improvement of people’s living standard. Guidelines on Strengthening Construction of Professional Talents of Social Work issued by 18 departments including the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee is the first state document on constructing professional social work system and pushing ahead construction of professional social work talents. Interpretation of the guidelines makes it better to understand and implement the spirit of the document and to construct professional talent system of social work with Chinese characteristics.

Key words: social work, professional talent development, Chinese characteristics