Social Care equivalent in Australia

sarah22

Hi,

I hope someone here can help me or point me in the right direction.
I have a BA (Hons) in Applied Social Studies in Social Care, Which in Ireland makes me a social care worker. Does anybody know the Australian equivalent or now where I can find out? Google just leads me to information about social workers.

The areas I have experience working in are residential units for kids, women’s refuge and family support work. Ideally I would like to continue to work in residential child care, but I would also consider other youth work roles.
So if anyone knows how I find out if my qualifications are relevant to working in these areas in Australia I would be very grateful.

Zambia

Welcome to Boards

On the first page of the forum there is a FAQ which may help you.

Here you would be looking at working for DHS here or DOCS in New South Wales etc.

On the FAQ look for skilled lists and try and find your role. Once you have found that use the FAQ to find your assessing authority for your skills.

Where do you intend to go?

sarah22

Thanks for the welcome and the reply,

ok so looking at the list of occupations I think I may be qualified for
welfare worker http://www.immi.gov.au/asri/occupations/w/welfare-worker.htm
which according to ANZSCO includes the following occupations Community Worker, Disabilities Services Officer, Family Support Worker, Parole or Probation Officer, Residential Care Officer , Youth Worker http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/0/D65D500F34C73EEECA2575DF002DA70F?opendocument

Some of these are on the occupations list:

Residential Care Officerhttp://www.immi.gov.au/asri/occupations/r/residential-care-officer.htm
youth worker http://www.immi.gov.au/asri/occupations/y/youth-worker.htm
family support worker http://www.immi.gov.au/asri/occupations/f/family-support-worker.htm

and the skills assessment authority seem to be vetassess http://www.vetassess.com.au/
Is it just a question of paying the assessment fee and they tell me what I am qualified for?

On the SKILLED OCCUPATION LIST (SOL) – SCHEDULE 3 Welfare centre manager is listed and on SKILLED OCCUPATION LIST (SOL) – SCHEDULE 4 the following are listed Welfare Worker, Community Worker, Disabilities Services Officer, Family Support Worker, Residential Care Officer and Youth Worker.
What is the difference between the two lists?

Has anyone worked in these areas in Australia?

Wages for a welfare worker seem to be around $43,000 before tax. Which seems a little low. Not expecting to live a lavish lifestyle just earn enough to be comefortable ie rent a decent place, go out a couple of nights a week, do a bit of travelling around oz etc

I was thinking Melbourne or Sydney. I have been to both before on holiday but the weather and being able to have easy access to the beach and the CBD is swaying me towards Sydney. Although Melbourne is a pretty cool place too.:D

mandrake04

Schedule 3 – applies to all new GSM 175 applications whose occupations are shown on the schedule 3 list.

Schedule 4 - Applies to GSM applications who require State sponsorship for the State Migration Plan.

State migration plan means that each state has x number quota for each occupation per year, for example if you look at Victoria's State Sponsorship List those that have been crossed out (ie. the whole ICT sector) have already reached their quota and wont be considered until 1st July.

sarah22

mandrake04 wrote: »

Schedule 3 – applies to all new GSM 175 applications whose occupations are shown on the schedule 3 list.

Schedule 4 - Applies to GSM applications who require State sponsorship for the State Migration Plan.

State migration plan means that each state has x number quota for each occupation per year, for example if you look at Victoria's State Sponsorship List those that have been crossed out (ie. the whole ICT sector) have already reached their quota and wont be considered until 1st July.

Thanks for clearing that up.

scott_o_reilly

can you work as a social worker with your Hons Social Care Degree, as i have one. I head this somewhere, just wondering,,

Cooperspale

sarah22 wrote: »

Thanks for the welcome and the reply,


Wages for a welfare worker seem to be around $43,000 before tax. Which seems a little low. Not expecting to live a lavish lifestyle just earn enough to be comefortable ie rent a decent place, go out a couple of nights a week, do a bit of travelling around oz etc

Yes salary may seem low but most of these jobs would also involve salary packaging,
http://manly-daily.whereilive.com.au/news/story/health-dept-s-guide-to-tax-perks/
One of my pals paid for his wedding reception with his wife's salary packaging and other pals rarely cook dinner because it's cheaper to eat out and submit your receipts monthly.

ozinfo

OP and Scott,

If you have graduated from any of the I.T's in Ireland with a BA in Applied social studies in Social Care you are NOT a considered a social worker in Australia or anywhere in the world for that matter. In Australia, to apply for jobs in Social Work you need to be a member of the Australian Association of Social Workers and unfortunately they do not accept a Social Care degree.

Social Care is not a widely used term in Oz and you will not be labelling yourself as a social care worker but as a welfare officer or welfare support worker or youth worker/community worker. The jobs are plentiful and the salary is above average. Sectors such as disability and young marginalized families is where your degree will come into play here in Oz.

Best of luck

podgey1

just reading this post and was wondering if your working in the field and having done the degree, do u know of any part time courses going in the same area in the cork galway region as my job is looking uncertain now and wanna try do something new outside the nine to five customer service role. thanks p

ozinfo

podgey1 wrote: »

just reading this post and was wondering if your working in the field and having done the degree, do u know of any part time courses going in the same area in the cork galway region as my job is looking uncertain now and wanna try do something new outside the nine to five customer service role. thanks p

Hi there,

You can apply to any Institute of Technology for a 3 or 4 year degree in Applied Social Studies in Social Care, which qualifies you as a social care worker. As far as i am aware Cork I.T allows for 3 years and Limerick for 4 years. Unsure of the Galway region, don't think they offer registered Social Care courses. To be eligible for working as a family support worker / welfare support worker in Australia a four year degree course is required.

Hope this helps,

If you have any further queries drop me a PM

mammabee

ozinfo wrote: »

Hi there,

You can apply to any Institute of Technology for a 3 or 4 year degree in Applied Social Studies in Social Care, which qualifies you as a social care worker. As far as i am aware Cork I.T allows for 3 years and Limerick for 4 years. Unsure of the Galway region, don't think they offer registered Social Care courses. To be eligible for working as a family support worker / welfare support worker in Australia a four year degree course is required.

Hope this helps,

If you have any further queries drop me a PM

Im completing a honours degree in NUIG Galway in Social care work. Its distance and its hours are great, fees are nearly 3,000 a year though, but for me its my only option with small children.

agaff13

Hi i was just wondering the same thing! I am almost finished my 4 year honors degree course in social care in dkit and i am interested in emigrating to Australia , but cant find info anywhere, just wondering how did you get on?

tango2

I have a B.A. in applied social studies in social care. I was looking to travel to america to persue my career. What does my course mean in america? is it the equivalent to anything? I looked up jobs as a social care worker but I can't find any that is relevent they are all for social workers. I was wondering if I was typing the title in wrong? I am looking to work in a residential centre for children or youth. pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee help thank you

Popinjay

For anybody looking to get work off the back of these qualifications in Oz, have a look ath ethicaljobs.com

I'm not a youth worker but am looking for admin roles in more altruistic settings and have seen a couple of nice jobs onn there.

There's a lot more for direct disability/youth/aged care work though.

Environmental stuff too for the tree huggers.

ashgroveface

Does anyone know where the best places are for Social Care work in Australia? Is it hard to find this work once you get there. Thanks!!

JessicaSq90

tango2 wrote: »

I have a B.A. in applied social studies in social care. I was looking to travel to america to persue my career. What does my course mean in america? is it the equivalent to anything? I looked up jobs as a social care worker but I can't find any that is relevent they are all for social workers. I was wondering if I was typing the title in wrong? I am looking to work in a residential centre for children or youth. pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee help thank you

Hi,
I am in exactly the same boat as you. Did you ever find out the equivalent?? It would be great to know. When I was looking at jobs, I ended up just looking up "Youth Work" or "Residential Care Homes" and stuff came up. But in the requirements, our degree isn't mentioned??? Hmm.. Confusing all the same! I hope you have had some luck in it all.
Thanks,
Jess.

sarah22

I thought I would reply to this thread as it seems to come up when people google Social Care Worker and Australia. I have also received some PM’s and as I am not a frequent user of boards I didn't notice until now.

So basically the whole idea of a Social Care worker doesn’t exist in Australia. Unlike in Ireland where social care worker is kind of an umbrella term in Australia the different roles have their own terms. Some of the titles you are qualified for include:

Welfare worker, Community worker, Youth worker, Disabilities Services Officer, Family Support Worker, Parole or Probation Officer, Residential Care Officer, Case worker, Child Protection worker, Family Connections Worker - The list is endless

What you would classify yourself as really depends on your experience. My experience was mainly in residential care for youths but I have also worked with people with intellectual disabilities so depending on the job spec and client group I could apply for any of the roles above. When searching for a job my best advice is to look at the different jobs specs for each role and find what fits in with your experience.

As already stated in the thread you are NOT classified as a Social Worker although in some roles you would do work that is similar to that of a Social Worker however these are usually senior posts, although this is not always the case.

In terms of skill set I would say that anyone with a degree especially an Hons degree and relevant experience is considered highly skilled. The Australian equivalent qualification is TAFE which I think is kind of similar to a FETAC course in Ireland. These are usually specified into one area such as youth work or disability worker etc.

I found that if you have a degree and relevant experience to the role you’re applying to employers look favorably on this and would consider you highly skilled.

I never had to get my skills verified, I came on a WHV and could only stay for 10 months I did my regional work first and then I had just under seven months left where I was prepared to do any job to get by but luckily I was able to work in residential which is where my experience is. My employer did not need my skills verified they could see that I had a degree and experience of working in the area and that was enough for them.

However if you do want to look into getting your skills verified then the organisations below are a good place to start. I have had no contact with either but send them an email and if they can’t help they will point you in the right direction.

Australian Community workers Association or Vocational Education Training and Assessment Services (VETASSESS)

I found a job easily and I would say that jobs there are plenty of jobs however I must stress that I had a good bit of experience so that probably helped. Any other social care workers I knew also found work easily.

Good Sites for job hunting –
Seek is probably the best in my opinion
Simply hired is ok too

Hope this helps anyone who is considering going to Australia.