Abstract: To investigate social work majors' imagination of professional competence, a competence structure was constructed by way of questionnaire survey and statistical modeling. Compared to other students, social work majors place more emphasis on knowledge and skills. There is a general tendency to have a perfect identification of professional competence among students in the lower division, but as they get into higher levels, their identifications begin to diversify. The findingswill be discussed and analyzed based on Bourdieu's practice theory and informationcollected through interview. It is found that ‘imagination’ plays a vital role in the choice of major for students; as an intermediary between structure and action, it influences the relationship between action and structure.

Key words: professional competence, social work majors, localization, professionalization