Diploma of Community Services (Case Management)

This qualification reflects the role of community services workers involved in the delivery, management and coordination of person-centred services to individuals, groups, and communities.

At this level, workers have specialised skills in community services and work autonomously within their scope of practice under broad directions from senior management.

Workers support people to make change in their lives to improve personal and social wellbeing and may also have responsibility for the supervision of other workers and volunteers. They may also undertake case management and program coordination.

To achieve this qualification, the candidate must have completed at least 200 hours of work as detailed in the Assessment Requirements of units of competency.

The skills in this qualification must be applied in accordance with Commonwealth and State or Territory legislation, Australian standards and industry codes of practice.

No occupational licensing, certification or specific legislative requirements apply to this qualification at the time of publication.

In this course you will learn how to:

• Communicate effectively with and advocate on behalf of clients
• Apply counselling techniques
• Work effectively with diverse clients on one-on-one or in groups
• Apply all aspects of case management
• Implement community development strategies
• Understand the impacts of sociological factors on clients

RPL

• provides an alternative pathway to achieving a qualification without course attendance
• is a consultative process between with the candidate and the assessor to determine whether the candidate has acquired the requisite learning, skills and knowledge to demonstrate that they have achieved the required learning outcomes or performance criteria of the course or qualification, for which the candidate is seeking
• identifies where appropriate additional learning experiences or training gaps are needed to achieve the course or qualification
• is the conduct of an assessment to confirm competency.

APSI has developed a process that promotes holistic and task-based assessment. It focuses on relating assessment activities to actual job tasks. The intention of this model is to streamline and simplify the process of recognising competency.

Prior to RPL, information is provided to the candidate on the assessment process. Specific advice is given to each candidate on how they can demonstrate their competence and what documentary evidence is required to support their application. Each industry has unique documents that can provide evidence of experience and competence.

The candidate is required to provide adequate information prior to, throughout and after a training and assessment experience. The assessor, in this process, needs to be fully aware of the needs of the candidate and help them identify relevant workplace personnel who can confirm the candidate's competency.

The focus of the APSI streamlined holistic assessment process is to focus on demonstrated skills and knowledge and not to rely purely on documentary evidence as the main source of evidence.

Some examples of documentary evidence that can support the process include:

• licences such as First Aid, RSA
• CV or work history with details of job role and responsibilities
• previous qualifications from overseas and Australia
• certificates and records of results or assessments completed with other RTO's
• photographs of work undertaken
• samples of related project work
• diaries of tasks performed
• task sheets/job sheets/logbooks
• site training records
• pay slips / employment contracts / job descriptions
• memberships of relevant professional associations
• references/letters/third party reports from previous employers/supervisors
• industry awards
• performance appraisals

An RPL application kit can be obtained here.