KEY POINTS:
Qualification: Master of Social Work (Applied)
Where: Massey University, Auckland and Extramural
Contact: Ph: 0800 MASSEY (627739), Email: sspsw@massey.ac.nz
Entry requirements: Appropriate degree with relevant undergraduate papers in human development, psychology, social research and New Zealand society, or equivalent status. Not required to be active in social work, but most students are.
Closing Dates: Extramural 15th January; Auckland campus 15th December; 1st November for international students.
2008 Course Costs: $1324.25 per 30 credit paper: $662.13 per 15 credit paper
Starting Salary: $45,000-$50,000 depending on qualifications and experience.
There is a shortage of qualified and registered social workers in New Zealand. The Massey University Masters in Social Work (Applied), is designed for people wanting to upskill, upgrade or gain a social work qualification in order to become qualified and registered social workers.
Study includes social policy analysis, social services management, applied research in social policy and social services, and Maori development and social services.
Assessments range from developing community directories of client services to annotated bibliographies, literature reviews, and critical essays. The two 60-day fieldwork placements are assessed by a portfolio of reports and evidence of practice.
Students can complete the nine required papers over two years full-time or five years part-time. If done extramurally, students attend a minimum of three campus block courses of around a week at Palmerston North.
THE STUDENT
Linda Maule
Family Works Northern SocialWorker and Counsellor
I worked as a counsellor and then a foster parent social worker for another non-governmental organisation (NGO) before coming to Family Works Northern three years ago. We work with families, which often includes family therapy and working with the whole family, rather than individuals.
I moved into social work because I felt it offered more variety and got me out and about more. But counselling and social work are complementary roles. Counsellors assist clients to increase their understanding of themselves and their relationship to others, to develop more resourceful ways of living and bring change into their lives.
Social workers enable and empower individuals, families, groups and communities to find their own solutions to the issues and problems. They also have an advocacy role to inform society about injustices.
I have a social science degree and a counselling diploma and I'm in my last semester of the Master of Social Work which will give me my formal social work qualification. I've been doing it part-time extramurally while working over the past four years.
I did my first practicum here, at Family Works. My second practicum is at Child, Youth and Family which I'm keen to do to get a taste of a different social work environment.
I have gained a lot of knowledge, skills and confidence through the Masters; it adds another dimension to my understanding of my daily work and provided me with a sense of the bigger picture in social work, especially around policy and legislation.
Papers such as social policy, research and theories and models really expand my thinking because theories and models are my tools. They are important because as a professional I need to articulate to clients what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. It's all about safe and effective practice.
I chose Massey because it has an established reputation in social work and has a really good extramural service.
THE EMPLOYER
Vivianne Flintoff
Waikato service manager for Family Works Northern
Family Works has a multi-disciplinary team, including counsellors, social workers, and social workers in schools.
Linda came highly recommended from her previous job where she worked as a social worker with a counsellor-trained background.
Her study has added value in encouraging reflective practice, while engaging with theory and integrating new ideas into practice. This is vital. You can work with a family with all the best intentions but if you're not clear about the theory and why you are suggesting an intervention, then you may not be practising safely or effectively. If you do something that gets unexpected results, you have to reflect on why that happened; otherwise you are being like a volunteer, friend or family, rather than an intentional practitioner that knows what they are putting in practice and why.
Good practice doesn't always lead to happy outcomes either, so you also have to recognise that you've done good work even if it doesn't have a happy outcome. Linda does all this.
We have someone on site doing a Masters locally and Linda and another staff member studying extramurally. Both approaches are working well.
* www.familyworks.org.nz
