The distant nature and purposes of social work education programs at different educational levels, which prepare persons for social service roles at different levels of practice, lack systematic and generally acceptable difinitions. The newest and least understood direct service practitioners are graduates of community college social work education programs. This study develops and analyzes two current models of human service education and practice at the associate degree level--the Human Services Technician and the Human Services Generalist--in terms of their sources, underlying assumptions, and implications for job roles and tasks and for curriculum design. An alternative conceptual framework is developed, based on the team model of staff differentiation in social work practice, which attempts to capitalize on the strengths and eliminate the weaknesses of the two current formulations. The proposed approach introduces the concept of the specialist to the generalist model; the student moves from depth to breadth, from concrete and specific learning experiences in a vocational core to broader experiences which develop conceptual, analytic, and problem-solving skills through a series of liberal arts electives. An extensive bibliography is appended. (CN)