Social Worker Hub

Social workers address barriers, inequality or injustice faced by people from all walks of life, particularly the marginalised, abused or socially excluded. 

To become a Social Worker, you need to complete a Bachelor of Social Work as an Undergraduate degree. This is the equivalent of 4 years of full-time education (FTE). There are placements throughout the Undergraduate degree in a variety of social work settings. 

Depending on the university, postgraduate qualifications to study a Master of Social Work take 1.5 to 2.5 years of FTE equivalent.

To become a Mental Health Accredited Social Worker, you will be required to undertake further study after completing your Bachelor of Social Work.

The ATAR requirements to study Social Work are 75+ and depend on the University. The Guaranteed ATAR as per the Universities Admissions Centre to study Social Work is 80.

“Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” – Malcolm Forbes

AASW: The Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) is the professional body for social workers in Australia. As well as representing and supporting social workers in their essential work, we set the benchmarks for professional education and practice in social work. – www.aasw.asn.net.au

“Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.” – William Yeats

Social workers contribute to the greater social good across a range of sectors and work with people of all ages. They work in:

• hospitals,
• schools,
• federal and state government departments,
• non-government organisations,
• community services and
• in private practice.

Fields of social work practice can include:

• mental health
• health
• disability
• child protection
• family support
• schools and education
• domestic and family violence
• addiction 
• gambling
• alcohol and other drugs
• sexual violence
• academia
• housing and homelessness
• income support
• leadership and management
• refugee and asylum seeker advocacy
• veterans’ affairs
• palliative care
• social injustice and discrimination

“Nature has given us all the pieces required to achieve exceptional wellness and health, but has left it to us to put these pieces together.”—Diane McLaren

As a Social Worker, you can work:

• Full-time,
• Part-time
• as a contractor.

Your role could be:

• Community-based
• Office-based
• FIFO
• Work from home
• a combination of these

Face-to-face and Telehealth options are available in most roles. This offers Social Workers the flexibility to schedule work around their life, as opposed to the other way around.

As a Social Worker, you can work anywhere in Australia. You are in exceptionally high demand in:

• metro,
• rural,
• regional or
• remote locations Australia-wide.

Check out some of our jobs available for Social Workers right now. 

Social Work is a universal degree – most countries in the world recognise Social Workers and their skills as professionals. Not only does this ensure that your skills are current, it means that you are adding value to peoples lives no matter where you go.

We highly recommend you make sure to check what the requirements are to practise in each country.

• Graduates: $60,000 – $70,000 base + super
• 1-2 years’: $70,000 – $80,000 base + super
• 3-5 years’: $80,000 – $95,000 base + super
• 5+ years experience: $95,000 base + super and above. This is when Specialist, Team Leader or Management level roles start to appear as well.

Keep in mind that the above are general indicators. Factors that influence your salary include:

• specialisations,
• location,
• industry,
• role depth,
• employer salary band-widths,
• work arrangement

If you would like to discuss your salary, feel free to contact us. 

“I think it’s possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary” – Elon Musk

Our Social Workers are offered and/or we negotiate a range of benefits for them. 

Financial Benefits:

• Regular Salary Reviews
• Performance Bonus
• Extra Superannuation Contributions
• Salary sacrifice or Salary Packaging arrangements
• Corporate Discounts

Tools of Trade:

• Mobile
• Laptop
• Tablet 
• Speech to Text Software

Admin & Reception Support: Free up time by dictating your reports and let the admin team do the rest

Travel:

• Pool Car Access
• Novated Lease
• Per Km reimbursement
• GoGet Car Access
• Set amount per timeframe
• Petrol Card

Knowledge & Assessment Suitcase:

• Subscriptions, both hard- and soft-copy
• Professional development contribution
• Comprehensive induction
• On-going mentoring
• In-services by subject matter experts

Extra Leave: One of our clients give their staff 7 weeks’ leave. Other clients give their staff reservist leave, doona days, volunteer, pet and birthday leave. 

Parental Leave: Some employers give their staff the difference between their wage and the government mandated parental leave subsidy for the full 16 weeks. Pretty good!

Social and team building: Paid for by the company. One of our clients paid for their whole team to do axe-throwing and a cooking class – not on the same day…

“Sometimes I spend the whole meeting wondering how they got the big meeting table through the door.” ~ Anonymous

Health, Wellness & EAP:

• Pool, yoga  or gym access or contribution
• Confidential EAP 

Career Mapping: Our clients spend a lot of time and money training and supporting you. They would like to see you mutually thrive. Your success and growth = their success and growth. 

“It’s pretty clear: If you don’t ask, you usually don’t get what you deserve.” ― Suze Orman

These are anecdotal observations based on our conversations with many Social Workers. 

KPIs: Some Social Workers find the idea of billable targets challenging as it associates their work with a dollar amount. 

Too specialised: Some Social Workers would like to be able to apply their skills in more industries or in more roles within existing industries. For example, there aren’t many roles for Social Workers in Occupational Rehab. 

Burnout: The ongoing demands on Social Workers can lead to burnout at work. Social Workers who work in confronting or challenging roles such as child sexual abuse or domestic violence arenas need  support and empathy from their  employers. 

Access to EAP support services can help with burnout.

“Be gentle with yourself, you’re doing the best you can” – Unknown

“If you are migrating to Australia and seeking recognition as an internationally qualified social worker for migration and/or employment purposes, we can help you.

On behalf of the Australian Government, as a nominated assessing authority, we assess academic social work qualifications by assessing your qualification for migration purposes.” – www.aasw.asn.au

Read the details on the process on the AASW website.

Medijobs Australia highly recommends commencing your Social Work accreditation process early in your migration journey so that you have plenty of time to get through your accreditation requirements.