AUSTRALIAN
THE ASSOCIATION FOR COMMUNITY SERVICE
PROFESSIONALS
Vic. Reg. No.
A0036440S
AIWCW
National Office Phone: 03 9654 8287
FIELD EDUCATION PLACEMENTS - DIPLOMA OF COMMUNITY
WELFARE WORK
CLARIFIED REGULATIONS AND ADDITIONAL NOTES
To: Registered
Training Organisations offering this course to international students.
From: The Australian Institute of
Welfare and Community Workers (AIWCW)
1. A
general caution is hereby added for future planning for all relevant RTOs, and
is not strictly part of the AIWCW Approval process, but it does provide further
guidelines regarding acceptability of field education placements. It especially
applies to the situation in
2. Neither
AIWCW nor VRQA currently have the power to restrict student numbers in courses
such as this, but AIWCW is urging that this be done. This is because of the
scarcity of suitable field placements for international students in Melbourne,
where there are at least 10 RTOs offering or planning to offer this course,
some with more than 500 students already enrolled in the first year and
therefore not yet needing field education. Yet some colleges are already
experiencing difficulty in finding suitable placements. With eight or more TAFE
campuses and four universities requiring similar placements, the situation by
the end of 2008 is likely to be critical. AIWCW believes RTOs should seriously
consider voluntarily restricting their intakes of students, since it will be too
late at the end of their first year of study, to discover there are not enough
placements available for all students. In NSW, the relevant State Training
Authority is already restricting numbers in the Diploma of Community Welfare
Work.
3. Clarification of AIWCW Regulations
3.1 The ability to find suitable
placements for students must be a college responsibility. Placements as a
nursing case aide, aged care assistant, clerical assistant, or recreational
planner will not normally be acceptable to AIWCW, unless a substantial range of
competencies are assessed, not merely casual care and support. For example, a
placement which consists mainly (75%+) of planning and supervision of
recreational or craft activities, or reception and referral, or primarily only
observation of any kind of planning and practice, will not be considered
suitable.
3.2 AIWCW insists that the supervisor
in the workplace is a professional person, with a full range of appropriate
skills and appropriate academic background and experience, not merely an
administrator or floor superintendent, etc. A Certificate IV in the community
services would be a minimal qualification for a workplace supervisor of
students, but only if supported by at least three years of relevant experience
(five years of experience is preferred). In special circumstances (such as
rural placements), where an otherwise very relevant placement does not include
a suitable supervisor, professional supervision may be provided by a suitably
qualified and experienced person who is external to the workplace, and this can
include a staff member from the college.
Such supervision must comprise at least two hours per week (See Requirements
for Field Education, par. 2.2 & 6.4.3).
4. The application to AIWCW for
recognition as “suitable as a welfare worker” for migration purposes, asks for
full details of all field education placements, including duties performed and
names and qualifications of supervisors. It is not enough to supply just
evidence of completion of the relevant diploma, and AIWCW personnel may follow
up any apparently doubtful field education placements prior to issuing the
necessary recognition. To avoid disappointments to those persons awarded the
diploma, but whose field education is found inadequate by AIWCW, RTOs are urged
to ensure the field placements are appropriate.
CRSE.05 Ver
Apr08