Demand strong for South East social workers
by Katrina Kalleske
In a regional centre like Mount Gambier which serves 60,000 people and is more than 430km from the nearest capital city, Adelaide - having six new social workers ready for work can make a big impact.
So for Tricia Munn, head of social work at UniSA’s Centre for Regional Engagement the graduation of her first cohort of social work students in Mount Gambier has been a red letter day.
And because of the high demand for social workers, the six graduates have all secured positions, some of them starting work well before official graduation.
"There is such a shortage of social workers in Australia, not just the South East, that organisations are keen to take on students who have enough knowledge and practical skills to work in the industry, a little before they graduate," said Munn.
"Hopefully over time, the demand will ease and students will be able to do industry placements without feeling the responsibility of the practice situation before they are fully qualified."
The program was first delivered in Mount Gambier in 2005 and today there are close to 70 students studying social work here.
Allen March, Mount Gambier Manager of Families SA, a Division of the Department of Families and Communities, believes the social work program is invaluable to a community like Mount Gambier and at a wider level for regional South Australia.
"It’s a tremendous advantage to have the University here because with the hinterland, the South East is such a large rural setting," March said. "Many students would otherwise have to travel to Melbourne or Adelaide to study. Now they have ready access to the uni.
"It’s a great benefit for students – they can stay in their own homes and with family – and it is a great benefit for the community because people studying and living in the country are more likely to work here.
"We need more social workers who are prepared to live and work in country SA."
Families SA is the largest employer of social workers in South Australia and was a strong supporter of the foundation of UniSA’s Mount Gambier campus. It has also shown strong support for the program by providing tutors and final year student work placements, and has already had five students undertake placements and another is now undertaking their final field education placement with Families SA.
Families SA in Mount Gambier has also snapped up one of the first group of social work graduates – Susan Shaw.
Amanda Koppe, also among the six graduates, was awarded the Centacare Prize for the most outstanding Social Work student from Mount Gambier.
Surprised and delighted with the award, Koppe said while it was nice to be recognised, the main focus for the graduates was securing a job and starting to work within the community.
Koppe said while there were some initial teething problems with technology at the Mount Gambier campus, they were ironed out as quickly as possible.
Munn agrees that by the second year, the technology had improved and they had better equipment. Social work has long been taught at Whyalla, so for most subjects, the lecturer is based in Whyalla with lectures video-conferenced to Mount Gambier. After the lecture, a tutor in Mount Gambier runs the associated tutorials.
For Koppe the first year of the four-year degree was particularly hectic because she was also balancing wedding arrangements. But in all other respects the commencement of the program in Mount Gambier in 2005 was ideal.
She had been out of high school for almost a year working in Mount Gambier and although she had been accepted into UniSA’s social work program in Adelaide, she had deferred and decided she really did not want to move to the city.
"I decided in Year 10 that I wanted to study social work so it was great when I found out they were starting the program in Mount Gambier," Koppe said. "It was great timing so I could still do my dream course without having to go through the upheaval of moving."
For the past 18 months she has been putting her education to good use as a social worker in alternative care, working with foster carers at ac.care (Anglican Community Care). She says she loves working in the field of child protection and hopes one day to be able to use her skills overseas.