AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF WELFARE AND COMMUNITY WORKERS INC.

 

THE ASSOCIATION FOR COMMUNITY SERVICE PROFESSIONALS

 Vic. Reg. No. A0036440S                                                                  ABN 28 696 828 620    

 

                 AIWCW National Office                                  Phone:    03 9654 8287

                 PO Box 42                                                                           Fax:         03 9654 1081

                 FLINDERS LANE PO VIC 8009                                     email:      info@aiwcw.org.au                                                                                                            website:  www.aiwcw.org.au

 

 

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 Melbourne at present, but other major cities are beginning to also experience difficulties.

 

 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