Social Worker

Roles and responsibilities

To qualify as a social worker:

Step 1
Complete any undergraduate bachelor’s course as your first degree.

Step 2
Complete the postgraduate Master Social Work to qualify as a social worker.

Refer to the Study Pathways to the right for more information.

Social workers:

• counsel individuals through a crisis that may be due to death, illness, relationship breakdown or other reasons
• provide clients with information on services to assist them
• provide letters of referral or reports that will help clients to obtain other services such as crisis accommodation or social security benefits
• guide small groups of people to share their experiences, support each other and learn social skills
• help community groups to plan and carry out programs to help themselves (for example, assisting newly arrived immigrants to form an association)
• research community problems, needs and solutions through client contact and records of welfare and health agencies
• analyse statistics and write reports
• develop policy and evaluate programs
• manage and train staff; attend professional meetings
• lobby to change social welfare policies and procedures in the pursuit of social justice for all members of the community

As a social worker you could be employed in a variety of health fields and also in state, territory and federal government departments, in hospitals, community health centres, local government authorities or non-government welfare agencies.

With broad academic and practical training, qualified social workers may also work in non-social work areas as project officers, policy makers or administrators.

Source: myFuture