Sliding doors
by Vincent Ciccarello
When Leah Brown, a highly experienced rehabilitation counsellor with a nursing background, decided to upgrade her qualifications, little did she know that the program would introduce her to a number of future employees.
And when Kimberley Packer (pictured left), a psychology graduate from Jacksonville University in Florida – where she’d been studying on a tennis scholarship - sat in the same lecture room with her at UniSA, she had no idea Brown would one day be her boss.
Brown (pictured right) is principal consultant of Insite Injury Management Group, a small to medium enterprise regularly looking to employ skilled rehabilitation consultants for its growing business. She and other industry colleagues saw an opportunity to find suitable staff and to give students a taste of work in the field by offering placements to fellow students in UniSA’s Graduate Diploma in Rehabilitation Counselling program.
"We interview the students based on their potential for future employment," Brown said.
"We don’t just have them observing people; we take them to the point where they are actually undertaking the work of a rehabilitation consultant. It gives students a great introduction to the industry, the environment they’ll be working in, and whether it’s for them or not."
Insite has gone on to employ no fewer than eight of its 20 rehabilitation consultants directly through the work placement arrangement. Packer is the latest recruit.
"People such as Kim, with a psychology undergraduate degree, are incredibly valuable when it comes to dealing with people who might have psychological trauma or psychosocial issues related to their physical injuries," Brown said.
Packer said the program and work placement opened her eyes to the range of work possibilities in the field.
"The classes were definitely very interesting because we’d often have input from people who were very experienced rehab consultants," she said.
"I found the placement very valuable because I wasn’t really aware of all the different facets of the job. I’ve been able to find employment that I love at a place where I love working."
As a businesswoman, rehabilitation counsellor, graduate and now masters’ student, Brown has a unique perspective on the nexus between work and study. Field placements, she said, offered a useful link.
"The placement is an incredibly successful transition from study to work. By the time the students finish their graduate diploma, they are fully accredited rehab consultants ready to work in the profession. "I’m incredibly impressed by the University’s responsiveness to the industry’s needs," she said.
"The program is the only one of its kind in SA; the content is hugely relevant to the industry, and the program has a number of industry representatives as either guest lecturers or coordinators."
For her own efforts as a student, Brown was recently awarded the Australian Society of Rehabilitation Counsellors (SA) prize. The $500 prize is awarded to the best student in the case management in vocational rehabilitation courses while enrolled in the Graduate Diploma in Rehabilitation Counselling program.