Plans to double university fees for social work degrees have prompted warnings that training needs to remain affordable to avoid the risk of an exodus of community service workers, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
The concerns of the state government and Children’s Guardian about the cost of training for the essential service workers comes as the Australian Services Union reports that they are now considering leaving to retrain as nurses or teachers.
The ASU said the cost of a nursing degree would drop under federal government proposals, while the cost of social work and related degrees would double from about $30,000 to $58,000.
Children’s Guardian Janet Schorer said child protection workers need to be “competent” and “resilient” in the face of their challenging and confronting work.
“Access to affordable higher education and training is critical to providing a diverse and skilled workforce,” she said.
“A professional workforce is critical to the quality of services provided to children and young people in the child protection and out-of-home care systems.”
NSW Minister for Families, Communities and Disability Services Gareth Ward said social work graduates were in high demand across the social services sector. He said they were “critical in our work to improve outcomes in child protection, housing, homelessness, youth justice and disabilities”.
“We want people to study courses that will help enhance the community services workforce and it is important that we don’t deter students from going down that path,” he said.
FULL STORY
‘I’m now thinking of retraining’: Uni fee hike could see social worker exodus (Sydney Morning Herald)
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Rachel Low says she would not have studied for a social work degree if the fees were double/ Rhett Wyman
