Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Practice

Graduate Certificate

Our Applied Practice suite is designed to help social workers, counsellors, and community development practitioners advance their skills in a variety of social practice situations. Further your ability to work with individuals, whanau, and communities, and transform your practice in ways that enhance social justice and reduce inequalities for communities.

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Key details

Degree Type

Graduate Certificate

Intake Months

Feb, Jul

Domestic Fees

$4,100 per year

About this course

Please note: This programme does not lead directly to professional registration. It's designed primarily for qualified and registered professionals who are currently working in the sector in various disciplines, including social work, counselling, community development, and other allied fields.

This programme provides a professional development opportunity for you to update and extend existing skills and knowledge in your current workplace. You'll identify existing issues related to your sector, and learn research methods that can be applied in real-world settings through reflective practice and academic study.

You'll be able to remain professionally current by critically engaging with research practice through Te Tiriti o Waitangi and indigenous approaches. These foci will ensure that you can confidently pursue culturally responsive applied research.

Upon completion, you'll be able to add value to your organisation by employing advanced applied research skills, and the qualification will also enable you to demonstrate this ability to employers and other industry stakeholders.

Advance your practice and contribute to your profession by learning how to conduct work-relevant research and projects;
Ideal for those with practice-based skills who want to develop their personal and professional development competencies or learn how to validate their practice skills and ideas through research;
Engage in contextualised self-reflection;
Analyse relevant social policies and social discourses to create opportunity and empower individuals, groups and communities;
Improve communication across disciplines and cultures within changing environments;
Taught by highly experienced lecturers with roles in community and national organisations;
Flexibility: choose full- or part-time study to fit in with your professional practice.

Once you've successfully completed this programme you'll receive the qualification of a Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Practice and If you'd like to continue studying, you can progress to the Master of Applied Practice (Social Practice). Progressing students can transfer their credits, so the Masters will only be an additional 1 year (full-time) or 2 years (part-time).

The key difference between this programme and the Masters is that this programme teaches you how to conduct applied research in your industry, whereas the Masters gives you the opportunity to actually conduct this research as part of your studies.

Entry requirements

What you will need to study this programme.

Domestic students Academic requirements

You must have completed at least one of the following:

A Bachelor's degree or Level 7 Graduate Diploma in the same or similar discipline;
Provide documentary evidence of outcomes in the social work, community development, or counselling work environment to demonstrate an ability to perform in the programme and commit to achieving its outcomes;

And meet one of the English entry requirements;

University Entrance Literacy: 8 credits at Level 2 or above in English or Maori (4 in Reading, 4 in Writing); or
Evidence of English language proficiency as outlined in the NZQA Rules on the Unitec English Language Requirements for International Students Web-page.

Non-Academic requirements

A phone or face-to-face interview may be required as part of the application process.

Don't meet these Academic requirements?

If you don't meet the academic criteria, our Bridging Education Programmes can help you qualify. Simply apply online, and we'll discuss your next steps.
If you don't meet the above criteria, special or discretionary admission may apply; your eligibility will be determined at the interview.

For more information, download the programme regulations (PDF 449 KB)

Study locations

Waitakere

Career pathways

- Community development worker - Counsellor - Not-for-profit practitioner - Social practitioner working for a government agency - Social practitioner working for a non-government agency (NGO) - Social worker (both NGO and statutory)

Unitec Institute of Technology