Have you considered working with children, families and communities including those that
are vulnerable?
If so, then Edith Cowan University has a course in Social Science that may be the course for
you.
So what is Social Science?
Social Science is the study of the structures of society, the thing that is really special
about this course, is that it helps you to understand how people and communities interact
to bring about change.
In addition to an accreditation by the Australian Community Workers Association (ACWA) the Bachelor
of Social Science Course, Children and Family Studies Major, also has course approval from
the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority as a suitable qualification
for working in early education and care.
The Bachelor of Social Science has three majors to choose from depending on your area of interest.
These are: Children & Family Studies, Community Work and Human Services.
The course worked really well for me.
As a mature aged student I found it quite challenging coming back to doing academic
writing.
But I got lots of support from my lecturers, lots of feedback for my assignments.
And I utilized all the support available at ECU.
So that really helped me to develop my writing ability.
I found that quite a few of the lecturers were actually practicing in the field at the
same time as delivering the learning.
So it was really helpful for me to see how this learning is been put into practice from
the examples they gave in their lectures.
And it also gave me an idea of what it’s like to be a professional working in the field
as well.
The Children and Family studies major element of the Social Science degree gives you an
opportunity to work in a placement and throughout the degree there are core units where you
study child development and you study theoretical approaches and you are exposed to current
research in what’s going on in the world of children and families.
And having that placement gives you the chance to transport that theory into the workplace
so you can use that theory to work with families and you can see the purpose of what you are
doing and what you hope will be the final outcome.
When I was going through all the university brochures when I was in Year 12 I actually
didn’t find anything else like this course, the double major in Children and Families
study there was different things you that could go down in the Social Services route
but there was never a general focus on Children and Family studies.
That’s why I personally chose to come to ECU.
I think on some level I have just always known that I wanted to work with children.
I haven’t really known exactly what that role might be.
But I think this major has allowed me to develop an idea of what I do want to do because it’s
given you such a broad range of different careers that you can go down.
The benefit of having a double major in Children and Family studies is that it gives you a
set of skills that you might not always get with just doing a degree.
My personal benefits that I have gotten from doing a practical placement is when I was
there they have given me so many extra training opportunities that I actually wouldn’t have
gotten elsewhere.
I did training in cross cultural awareness, I did domestic violence training so many different
things that I could have only gotten through this practical placement and it’s just given
me so much extra when I do apply for jobs, it’s given me a step forward.
I think what attracted me most to the Bachelor of Science at ECU was how varied and broad
the foundation of learning was.
They look at things like social research, gender issues instructions to community work
so they look at a whole range of subjects and I think it just really broadens your horizons
.I have had a lot of great opportunities during the ECU community works major.
I get to do four hundred hours of placement, which sounds daunting.
But I have done two placements one at Ruah and one with The Metropolitan Migrant Resource
Centre.
And I have worked with women in prison I worked with different organisations , run trainings,
done referrals, visited women who just been entered into prison so on remand.
So I have had a lot of opportunities to visit people in the community as well as with different
organisations and work with them.
So basically opens you up to a whole different field and networking.
It’s been great.
If anyone is considering a Social Science degree I’d really look at studying at ECU.
It offers you a really good foundation for your learning so you’ve got a really good
base to start your career on.
Personally I have found it really exciting to see that played out and practice through
the practical units that we have had here so the Social Science not only offers you
theoretical sides but really practical sides so you can see your learning and see where
you’re going.
So I started with Social Science in the Human Services major so with that major you can
actually go straight into the Social Work fourth year so which means that you have a
Social Sciences degree with the three years and then you go on to the fourth year of Social
Work and at the end you have two degrees so I thought that was a really great opportunity.
I think that the online component of the course was really good.
I felt I was really supported through that process any time I needed to email them they
would just get back to me which was very helpful.
I had a few classes and I found all the lecturers really engaging and supportive as well.
With the support from our award winning lecturers you can be sure that you will be workplace
ready by the time you graduate.
If you want to learn more about studying Social Science at ECU visit our website and follow
the links.