Master of Social Work

This video depicts scenes and shots of Rebecca Paterson walking through the streets of inner Melbourne, working in a small office, strolling through RMIT’s Melbourne campus with a friend, leading a group discussion while on placement, consulting with clients, and speaking to camera. Ambient electronic music plays throughout.

Duration: 1 minute 34 seconds

Rebecca Paterson [Master of Social Work]: Justice to me means people who are unable to speak for themselves are allowed or given a voice, and that things get changed.

I feel like as social workers, one of the better things that we can do is to remind people that we’re actually all the same, and that everyone has “stuff”, but there’s a quality in humanity that needs to be voiced.

RMIT was much more preferable for me in terms of what kind of placements were available. What I really liked was that teachers had experience in the field that wasn’t too long ago and so they still understood what it meant to be a social worker as well as an academic.

Placements are seen as a critical part of the program. I worked with women and we were dealing with their trauma that they’d experienced from their past refugee experiences.

From doing the course I’ve been able to get great skills at being able to interact well with a variety of different clients.

I wasn’t particularly skilled at advocating (speaking on the behalf of other people) prior to coming into social work. But now I feel much more confident, I’ve had heaps more experience in being able to do that, and that’s something that’s been really valuable.

I’ve actually gained employment from my previous placement opportunity. We do counselling and advocacy for people seeking asylum and refugees.

I feel really excited about being able to see change in peoples’ lives, and journey with them together, that’s what I’m excited about.

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RMIT University

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