Quality placement search puts social work students under pressure

There has been a shortage in qualified social workers for years, the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) chief executive Cindy Smith said.

"It is important for students to have a good quality placement that benefits their learning," she said.

The AASW regulates the standard of social work education and also accredits universities' social work programs, including Federation University.

"It is not easy to find a placement now," Fed Uni social work graduate Yan Cao said.

Ms Cao shared a screenshot of the Ballarat Community Noticeboard Facebook group with The Courier, showing another anxious international social work student from the university is seeking an opportunity on her own and saying the placement is required to start in April.

The Courier contacted the student, who didn't respond before the publication.

Current Fed Uni social work student Ella* Chen, who requested a pseudonym, said changing the placement requirement situation requires cooperation among the university, AASW and the community.

A university spokesperson said in a previous statement Fed Uni "sources placements for its social work students".

However, Ms Cao and Ms Chen chose to find their own placements as they said they avoid "sitting on their hands" when facing the growth of social work students and the lack of placement opportunities in Ballarat.

They told The Courier several social work students had complained directly to AASW in an accreditation panel meeting but haven't seen any changes. The meeting was to assess the viability of expanding Fed Uni's social work course, they said.

According to AASW's website, the new course has been provisionally accredited.

Ms Smith said universities' responsibility includes "providing support for the students, getting placements, developing the relationships with the industry".

"The student pays the university that fee to be a student and get access to all those opportunities. So that is solely the domain of the university," she added.

As a mature student, Ms Chen said she attended conferences, built her industry network and finally found a placement she was happy with.

Ms Smith said the universities need to engage early in partnership arrangements to have good placement opportunities in the community.

But some universities' industry relationships could be challenged due to the pandemic, especially regional universities that have "a much smaller footprint", she said.

"There was not the number of placements available. Supervisors move. A lot of placements are plugged down," she added.

Ms Smith said the 1,000-hour placement should be divided equally between practice placement - "interacting with clients" - and policy placement - "learning about policy".

Ms Smith said AASW "doesn't have a position on how the universities get placements".

"Under the accreditation, the placement should be a place where they're able to learn their skills and their knowledge to be able to be competent social workers," she said.

Federation University had yet to respond to The Courier's media request before publishing.