The community services and health sectors continue to grow strongly. This reflects an increased focus on support for vulnerable groups in the community including those with a disability and an ageing population. The community services and health workforce is becoming increasingly qualified, and the Community Service major equips you with the skills and knowledge to work in this exciting and rapidly growing sector. This major provides a broad view of health, social policy, psychology and human services. You will gain an understanding of the community services and health care sectors, global and local perspectives on social inclusion, and how these influence models of service delivery as well as interpersonal skills in communication and ethical sustainable decisions making. Second majors You can study the Community Services major as a qualifying major in the Bachelor of Human Sciences, and you may also select a second major from across the University. For careers in the community and health industry you might, for example, combine the Community Services major with one of the following majors: Public Health: Policy and Promotion Communication Disorders Counselling Theory and Principles Language and Professional Communication Early Childhood

Key Features

• You will gain a thorough understanding of how the community and health care sector works,
• Flexibility to focus on a particular area that interests you
• You will gain skills that will assist in working with the health and community sector in all areas of government as well as the wider non-government sector
• You will also participate in PACE (Professional and Community Engagement) - a program unique to Macquarie that takes you out of the lecture theatre and gives you the chance to gain relevant workplace experience in a professional or community setting.

This major will equip you for careers in the private, government, community and not-for-profit industry in areas such as:

• Social planning and policy
• Advocacy and welfare
• Community services case worker
• Disability and aged care
• Health services policy and planning
• International aid and development
• Administration in health and community
• Government and community sectors
• The past decade has seen substantial growth in the number of people employed in community service industries and this trend is predicted to continue.
• Between 2000-01 and 2010-11, the number of people employed in community service industries grew 51% compared with 26% for all industries. There are now over half a million people working in community services in Australia. (Source: Australain Social Trends, Sep 2011, Australian Bureau of Statistics)
• Over the five years to November 2018, Health Care and Social Assistance is projected to make the largest contribution to employment growth (up 16.3%). (Source: Employment Outlook to November 2018, Department of Employment).
• Moreover, with changing expectations of the types of community services provided, there is a growing need for workers to be adequately equipped and qualified to meet these changes. As industry adapts to a new funding and service delivery environment, there will be increased demand for specific skills and changing roles. Industry stakeholders have indentified the following key trends:
• increased scope of support worker roles
• emerging demand for care coordination roles
• continuing demand for workers to develop exisitng and aquire new skills (in some cases leading to the development of more advanced or specialised roles)
• increased demand for skills in business leadership, management and administration and greater emphasis on technological knowledge and skills.