Changing your career | Child Protection Jobs

If you already have experience in an associated area, such as social work, psychology or welfare, then you can take your career to the next level as a Child Protection Practitioner. DHHS will support you with access to a broad range of professional development, training and education programs to help you develop your career. Our People strategy 2020 outlines our approach to building a vibrant and successful health and human services workforce across Victoria.

The Victorian Government has invested $72.2m to employ 450 new Child Protection Practitioners. This was the largest expansion of our Child Protection workforce in Victoria’s history and will help ensure our teams are well supported as we work with communities towards safer families together.

This has been one of the better decisions I’ve made in my life. I have grown a lot as a person.

After 13 years working for Telstra in sales, operations and admin roles, James wanted to make a meaningful contribution to social change. “In corporate life I was noticing the gap between the privilege of people at the top and many of those on the frontline,” he says. “I saw a lot of vulnerable people around me.” He wanted to help the most vulnerable of all: children.

Combining his fulltime work with fulltime study, he completed a Bachelor of Social Work degree with Deakin University. The workload was intense, but he graduated after four years with honours. James even used his holiday leave while at Telstra to undertake placement in Child Protection offices in the regions.

Now, almost a year as a Child Protection Practitioner, he’s more certain than ever it was worth it. “Young children are the most vulnerable people in our society, and if we can protect those vulnerable lives, I can’t think of anything else that’s more important, for me.”