Moving continents
In a globalised world your skills are becoming more transferable than ever, in almost every career or subject, including social work as well as childhood and youth. These skills are transferable not only across organisations, but also across borders, or even continents. Yvonne Hore, a recent OU MA graduate in Childhood and Youth, sheds some light on a career in social work policy and practice, which led her from East Anglia to the North Island of New Zealand.
On a bright, sunny, June afternoon in the centre of Milton Keynes, Yvonne joined a crowd of proud, beaming participants of yet another graduation ceremony held by The Open University. Nevertheless, in some respect she stood out, if only for a simple reason that probably no other graduate travelled longer distance than her to get there. Nearly 12 thousand miles to be precise. She is based in Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand, and works for the Ministry of Social Development.
When she first moved to the other side of the globe a few years ago she initially worked as a front line social worker with Child Youth and Family in order to familiarise herself with the systems, culture and standards in New Zealand.
Working on a new policy
In August 2012 she joined the New Zealand Child Youth and Family's National Office, a section of the Ministry of Social Development, at a critical stage of preparations of the White Paper for Vulnerable Children. It is a major government initiative aimed at providing significant advancement in child protection and seen as a milestone in ensuring that vulnerable children receive the best care and support they can get. Although the paper itself created a heated political debate, it was generally accepted that the New Zealand model of welfare, the envy of many other countries, had to advance in the area of social care.
What comes handy for this role is both her professional background and her education and qualifications. Initially, she had been working with Cambridgeshire County Council in their social services department. Her employer sponsored her Open University course, leading to her receiving BA in Social Work as a member of the first cohort to graduate in this field. Following her graduation, she was offered a secondment to try a number of other teams, but eventually moved into a dedicated kinship team specialising in assessment work.
However she was already thinking about moving her career in another direction and taking full control of her options. She decided to strengthen her hand and continue the path of university education, opting again for the OU. She says: ‘I wanted the flexibility of distance learning but did not want to be tied into another sponsorship arrangement, so chose to study the MA in Childhood and Youth rather than a practice based social work MA course’.
Transferring her life and career to the furthest country on Earth was a big enough challenge, and adding an ongoing university course was initially a burden. Yvonne says: ‘I had to factor in some additional organisation for the time difference, and I had to restart one module as it had been a particularly busy time just after I had made the move. The flexibility of working on modules meant I could take a break if needed and build the modules around me, rather than be committed to a continuous course. I was also able to arrange to take an exam at one of the local universities in Wellington.’
A day in the life of a government researcher
The effort paid off in the end as the university course and the job for the government converged. In her work she concentrates on reviewing research and literature and writing papers recommending ways forward for social work in New Zealand. Although the subjects of her modules were different to the subjects her department deals with, yet the skills she developed in reading research and literature, and writing assignments for her degree, were similar to the ones she puts into practice now.
Yvonne is keen on creating new links between her work and university research. She has received encouragement and support from her current manager, and she is now actively looking into developing a PhD project out of some of the work she is doing. Yvonne thinks there are limited areas of in the social work which could be developed into a PhD research project in childhood and youth. However she feels that, if she was successful in identifying some research project, this may lead into a doctorate in government studies instead. She is already working on the academic aspect of her current work. She is planning to turn the literature review she has completed into a peer reviewed article for the Social Work Now journal.
