Social Services ITO National Degrees

The Social Services Industry Training Organisation (ITO) is responsible for developing national skill standards and qualifications for the social services industry. The sector suffers from a chronic shortage of skilled qualified social workers and youth development professionals. The ITO has been assisted by the Social Development Ministry to develop National Degrees in both Social Work and Youth Development in order to standardise and improve on the existing local degrees currently available.

Allowing the industry itself to develop national degrees for these two vital social services occupations will ensure the qualifications are relevant to the work and connected to a coherent career pathway. They also represent an excellent return on investment in the existing workforce and will ultimately lead to increased capacity and capability within it.

The social services workforce includes over 18 different social service occupations – including social workers, youth workers, community workers, and counsellors. Many occupations in this sector are in short supply and have retention difficulties. Social workers, for example, have been on the Department of Labour’s Immigration Long Term Skills Shortage List for several years.

It is predicted that unfolding social and demographic factors – in the population and in the workforce – will lead to a growing demand for skilled social workers and youth workers over the coming decades. It is vital that initiatives are put in place now to attract, upskill and retain workers in these sectors of the social services industry.

Social services employees deliver critical services to our most vulnerable societal groups. There are currently 22 different degree qualifications in social work. These are developed and delivered locally by the relevant tertiary education provider (TEP) with varying degrees of industry involvement in their design and delivery. Employers have expressed concern about the consistency and readiness-for-practice of graduates from local degrees.

The national unit standards, developed in partnership with industry and delivered to existing workers in partnership with TEPs, are an effective way of ensuring industry wide relevance of the new national degrees. Following registration on the National Qualifications Framework, a national degree can be adopted by any existing TEP. This may, over time, reduce the inefficiencies associated with the proliferation of local degrees offered.

National Degrees in Social Work and Youth Development represent a significant strategic and cost effective move to upskill a largely unqualified social services workforce. They offer a sustainable solution to New Zealand’s current skill shortages in the sector by offering the potential and existing social services workforce clear pathways into diploma and then degree level programmes.

WEBSITE: www.socialservices.org.nz