Postgraduate - Area of study Community welfare and counselling

Human services professionals working across sectors in various capacities are more and more required to demonstrate the higher order skills associated with post graduate qualifications to move into leadership and senior positions. In rapidly changing social, economic, cultural and political societies, professional leadership demands ongoing familiarity with emerging research , the capacity to evaluate competing knowledge claims and concomitantly, to provide sophisticated rationales for program or policy proposals to funding bodies or to decision makers. Participation in academic debates and knowledge exchange through conferences and seminars enables professional leaders' contribution to ongoing quality improvements and policy responsiveness.

Post graduate study at the School of Applied Media and Social Sciences (SAMMS) at Gippsland campus enables educational and skills development through exposure to contemporary national and international:

• political and social debate
• practice modalities and strategies
• research literature
• service models, programs, community initiatives, social movements and policy practices
• theoretical thought.

Students will also develop skills and capacities in

• research methodology
• evaluating research designs and the value of research data.

Students come from a range of disciplinary and industry backgrounds, including therapists, case managers, support workers and counsellors with various client groups, community development workers, local government planners, bureaucrats with program development or policy development responsibilities, middle managers in non-government organisations (NGOs) or government organisations, policy advisors, public advocates and activists, and health workers with cross-disciplinary backgrounds.

Supervision of research candidates is available, with particular staff strengths in:

• community development
• counselling skills
• cross cultural services
• developing practice based research and evaluation methodologies
• educational access and equity
• emancipatory and anti-oppressive welfare practice
• family violence
• homelessness
• human services management
• labour market policies and programs
• management
• men's behaviour change programs
• multiculturalism and race relations
• NGOs in developing countries
• personal construct theory
• program evaluations
• qualitative research methods
• regional social sustainability
• representations of women
• social and public policy
• social documentary photography
• social inclusion
• visual representation
• youth justice and child protection
• youth policy and services.