Masters in social work at SCU early next year

SOUTHERN Cross University will offer a masters degree in social work at their Bilinga campus from 2013.

Minister for Tertiary Education Chris Evans with SCU vice chancellor Peter Lee at the Gold Coast campus' new building. Photo: Mairi Manley. Picture: Contributed

SOUTHERN Cross University will offer a masters degree in social work at their Bilinga campus from 2013.

Graduates of the program will have the skills to tackle a variety of social services jobs within the community, including mental health, housing services and homeless outreach programs.

Statistics show that Tweed Shire has the highest rate of homeless people in the state, with more social workers needed to help people doing it tough.

Tweed Heads social work undergraduate Rebecca Doak was glad to see the degree offered at SCU and called for more social workers to be employed in the Tweed.

"There's still a hell of a lot of homeless, people with mental illness and children and young people at risk," she said.

"Take a walk around Tweed at night and it's almost guaranteed you'll see multiple homeless people."

Ms Doak said she was interested in SCU's external study options and hoped she could gain work locally.

Students who do take the course will have to complete 1000 hours of field training in order to prepare them for real world challenges and the situations they could face.