Course details

Summary

Want to broaden your Bachelor of Social Services degree with a second specialty? Or add a focused specialty to a generic degree?

This one-year programme will enable you to gain a vocational specialty by working with clients and studying professional practice and theory.

The demand for qualified individuals in the community services will remain strong as the world faces a growing and ageing population, and a general increase in social problems, and this qualification will broaden your opportunities to work across social services fields.

Gain current and industry-relevant training during this programme so you know exactly what to expect when you enter the workforce. You will have placement opportunities during your progression through the programme which are an exciting opportunity for you to work with people in supervised settings.

The nature of this programme is such that you will benefit from the chance to network in a specialist area and forge important industry contacts and relationships. As such, you will graduate as an effective and recognised professional practitioner who is able to meet professional association competency standards and access employment opportunities within relevant fields both nationally and internationally.

Upon successful completion, you will graduate with either a Graduate Diploma in Social Services (Career Practice), Graduate Diploma in Social Services (Disability), or a Graduate Diploma in Social Services (Mental Health).
Your workload:

This full-time programme consists of 120 credits. Courses are either 15 or 30 credits. A 15-credit course equates to 150 hours of work, and a 30-credit course equates to 300 hours of work. This is spread across 32 weeks which works out at an average of 37.5 hours per week.
Further study options:

Our Graduate Diploma in Social Services pathway enables you to gain a further specialty with one year's additional study and provides the opportunity for entering employment with the knowledge and work experience of two specialty areas.

Alternatively, you could increase your career prospects with postgraduate study at Waikato, Massey or Auckland universities.

Entry criteria

Applicants must have:

the Bachelor of Social Services or the Bachelor of Social Services (endorsed in Counselling or Career Practice), OR
an equivalent qualification, OR
be able to demonstrate equivalent practical, professional or educational experience of an appropriate kind.
If English is not your first language, you must also demonstrate an overall IELTS band score (academic) of 6.5, with no band score less than 6.5.