Plan Your Study and Migration Path in One Step! This Officially Recognised Shortage Occupation in Australia Has a Huge Gap Back Home Too — the New Migration Favourite with High Graduate Starting Salaries!

On 27 November 2020, the Department of Home Affairs updated the PMSOL, and to that list added a new occupation — Social Worker (272511).

Simply put, social work is mainly about helping disadvantaged groups in society, taking joy in helping others, and using professional knowledge and skills to solve social problems. The discipline is grounded in core subjects such as sociology and psychology, supported by property management, medicine, law and other fields, using casework, group work and community work as its direct working methods.

In Australia, social workers are professionals who apply the specialised knowledge they’ve learned to solve social problems, and they are an important safeguard for ensuring the harmony and stability of modern society.There is a substantial shortage of social work positions in Australia — Australia places great importance on the wellbeing of community residents, and needs large numbers of full-time social workers to provide professional guidance and counselling on psychological, legal and other matters to local residents.

If you want to return home after graduating, social work graduates back home can find roles in government agencies, charities, social organisations, community service agencies, patient counselling departments within hospitals, and judicial bodies handling and mediating family disputesamong other solid career options. As China’s economy and society develop rapidly and the population continues to age, the social work system is bound to become increasingly refined and professional, and social workers will be a vital force in keeping society running healthily.

Social work is currently developing in many Chinese cities, and it is held in especially high regard in places such as Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macau.

Clinical social workers, psychiatric social workers, child and family social workers, social and human services assistants, medical social workers, mental health and substance abuse social workers, school social workers, community social workers, public policy social workers, healthcare administrators, public health administrators, family and women’s protection roles, consultants, and more.

Below is the latest social worker salary survey from April 2021 — the average annual salary is $67,691 AUD.What’s surprising is that even a fresh graduate’s starting salary reaches as much as AU$59,943, which really looks attractive compared with accounting’s starting salary of just over $40,000.

For skilled migration, you’ll need to pass a skills assessment through AASW (Australian Association of Social Workers), which requires:

1. Completion of an accredited course

2. Practical field placement (the accredited course provider will arrange the placement)

3. Meeting the IELTS language requirement;

—an IELTS Academic score of four 7s — this can be four 7s on a single test result, or four 7s combined across two test results, however, the overall score on each of the two tests cannot be below 7, the two tests cannot be more than 6 months apart, and no individual band can be below 6.5

— the IELTS result must be from within the last three years

— if in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, the UK or the US you completed all of your secondary education (taught in English), and you completed a bachelor’s degree of three years or more in one of these countries (taught in English), you can be exempted from IELTS

Master of Social Work (Graduate entry)  

The top choice for students without a social work undergraduate background!

Intake: March and July each year

Course length: two years

Tuition: AUD $36,200 per year

Entry requirements:

a bachelor’s degree, having studied at least one year of social science-related courses during your undergraduate degree (including education, psychology, law, political science, history, accounting, economics, marketing, sociology, management, geography and more)As you can see, this course is well suited to students who studied a business degree at undergraduate level!

South Australia state nomination requirements for social work:

Standard South Australia graduates only need to be currently working in South Australia for three months (in the nominated occupation or a role highly relevant to it).The state government recognises the four categories of community work under UNIT GROUP 4117 WELFARE SUPPORT WORKERS, and these jobs are relatively easy to find.

For example: community worker, youth worker, disability worker or support worker — all of these jobs can help social work graduates meet the state nomination work requirement.

Outstanding South Australia graduates can be exempted from the three-month work experience requirement.

Western Sydney University’s social work program is ranked in the world’s top 100, and both the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes are accredited by the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW), and include more than 1,000 hours of practical placement, with a high graduate employment rate.Students without a relevant background can bridge into the social work master’s through a six-month Postgraduate Bridging Program.

Bachelor of Social Work — four-year undergraduate degree

Course length: 4 years

Intake: March each year

Tuition: $26,240 per year

Language requirement: IELTS 6.5, no band below 6.0

Western Sydney University’s social work undergraduate degree is a 4-year program, and the tuition isn’t too expensive — it’s much cheaper than nearby the University of Sydney.Furthermore, anyone admitted via their Australian Gaokao (ATAR) score receives a $3,000 AUD per year scholarship.An ATAR of 75 or above earns a $6,000 AUD per year scholarship. An ATAR of 90 or above earns a 50% tuition-fee reduction scholarship.

Master of Social Work (Qualifying) — two years

Course length: 2 years

Intake: March

Tuition: AUD $28,098 per year

Language requirement: IELTS 7.0, no band below 6.5

Entry requirements: the undergraduate background requirement is quite strict — you must have completed 8 psychology or sociology subjects, and your undergraduate major must be limited to fields such as health, education, or society and culture.

If your undergraduate degree doesn’t meet the relevant background requirements, don’t worry — you can first enrol in a six-month bridging course to make up the shortfall, starting each July, and once you complete it successfully you can enter the social work postgraduate programme.

Postgraduate students in this course can also apply for a Western Sydney University scholarship

an undergraduate result of 63% or above earns a $3,000 AUD per year scholarship, 75% or above earns a $6,000 AUD per year scholarship, and 85% or above earns a 50% tuition-fee reduction.

Master of Social Work (Qualifying)

Course length: 2 years

Intake: February, July

Tuition: AUD $31,632 per year

Language requirement: IELTS 7.0, no band below 7.0

Entry requirements: an undergraduate degree in social science, psychology, public health, education, nursing or a related field, with at least one year of social science content(for example, studies of the individual and society)

Master of Social Work (Qualifying)

Course length: 2 years

Intake: February, July

Tuition: AUD $31,632 per year

Language requirement: IELTS 7.0, no band below 7.0

Entry requirements: an undergraduate degree in social science, psychology, public health, education, nursing or a related field, with at least one year of social science content (for example, studies of the individual and society)

Bachelor of Social Work

Course length: 4 years

Intake: February, July

Tuition: AUD $25,832 per year

Language requirement: IELTS four 6.5s or PTE four 58s

Master of Social Work (Qualifying)

Course length: 2 years

Intake: February

Tuition: AU$31,000/year

English requirement: IELTS four 7s, or PTE four 65s

Entry requirements: a bachelor’s degree, with at least one year of sociology-related coursework

Master of Social Work (Qualifying)

Course length: 2 years

Intake: February

Tuition: AUD $33,950

Entry requirements: a bachelor’s degree (not necessarily in social work), having studied social and behavioural science-related courses during your undergraduate degree (including psychology, nursing, education, arts)

Language requirement: IELTS 7, no individual band below 6.5

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