Counselling...help? (1 Viewer)

vaiolet

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Joined
Jun 30, 2009
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2010
So...I'm an Italian girl of 18 years of age and I dream about becoming a trauma/grief counselor in NSW.
I've finished the 4th year of high school (which in italy is like year 11 but we've got no exams) and I planned to come to study at tafe in February.
My question is : to become a counselor (at tafe? has anybody done that?), for an international student, is it very important to get my HSC done?

It italy even if I'd get the italian "HSC" they wouldn't give me any UAI score to enter any university in AU. Actually italian school are pretty awful so anyway I would get any good preparation to uni!! :mad1:

Has anybody any info about becoming a couselor? Is it better at uni or tafe?

Thanks!
 

ay0_x

Member
Joined
May 11, 2009
Messages
524
Gender
Female
HSC
2009
So...I'm an Italian girl of 18 years of age and I dream about becoming a trauma/grief counselor in NSW.
I've finished the 4th year of high school (which in italy is like year 11 but we've got no exams) and I planned to come to study at tafe in February.
My question is : to become a counselor (at tafe? has anybody done that?), for an international student, is it very important to get my HSC done?

It italy even if I'd get the italian "HSC" they wouldn't give me any UAI score to enter any university in AU. Actually italian school are pretty awful so anyway I would get any good preparation to uni!! :mad1:

Has anybody any info about becoming a couselor? Is it better at uni or tafe?

Thanks!
To be a school counsellor in Australia, you need to do psychology in university, which is six years (university study + 2 years vocational experience).

If you cannot get into university, this is the path that I would take:
Get into TAFE and do one of either:
1/ Alcohol and Other Drugs Work
2/ Community Services Work
3/ Youth Work

You can be a youth worker or welfare worker just by finishing your diploma in either one of those in TAFE. BUT the pay is horrible and the most you will be getting is around $500-1000 per week, depending on where you work and how lucky you are.

If you want to be more professional...

After you finish your diploma, apply for University. There are a few universities which offer Articulation/credit transfer from TAFE for these 3 courses. You will be able to get into a Bachelor of Social Work in some institutes.

After you get into that, you can choose whether to be a social worker (still not very good pay), or transfer into psychology after finishing a year or so.

If you decide to become a social worker, the salary is decent. The government changed the laws here, so you can bulkbill on Medicare (Which means you can start your own practise).

If you decide you want to be a psychologist then you are looking at a minimum of 8 years' study. I would actually advise against going into psychologist because there are a LOT of uni students already doing psychology and there might not be enough work when you finish.

However if you decide to do social work/welfare work please make sure you have a back up plan and a part time job. My friend is a welfare worker, a schoolteacher and a TAFE teacher but she still is struggling to make ends meet.

I really hope that helped. If you have any more questions just ask, I know a lot about the community services sector :)
 

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