Human and Community Services
Human and Community Services is home to a range of social services courses that produce work-ready graduates. We focus on culturally responsive practice unique to the bicultural context of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Are you motivated to support other people through life’s challenges?
Human and Community Services provides training to get you ready to support the health and wellbeing of individuals, families and communities.
Our graduates have a range of job titles, from support workers through to qualified counsellors. Our learning strands include counselling, youth work, mental health and addiction, social services, and disability services.
At the Certificate level, our learning strands are mental health and addiction, social services, and community facilitation. At the Diploma level, you can study youth work and our degree options are career practice, counselling and health and wellbeing practice.
Explore our qualifications
Our research
Our areas of research activity include bicultural practice, evidence-based wellbeing, narrative practice, youth development, and pedagogical approaches.
Our researchers are active in the scholarly community, sharing their findings through publications and conference presentations.
Researcher profiles:
Kōwhai Centre
The Kōwhai Centre is a training environment that provides individual counselling services to members of the public. Student counsellors are in their second year of training in our Bachelor of Social Services programme. This on-campus counselling centre enables our learners to gain experience with a diversity of clients while receiving individual supervision by our lecturing staff. All supervisors are counsellors who are qualified members of a professional association such as the New Zealand Association of Counsellors (NZAC).
The Kōwhai Centre is proud to provide free counselling that is professional, supportive and accessible.
Our placement Providers
- Synergy Wellness
- Workforce Central Dunedin
- Wellsouth
- Aukaha
- Youthline Otago
- South Dunedin Community Network
- Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand – Southern
- Community Care Trust
Join us as a placement provider
We are always looking for placement providers to join us in providing quality and enriching industry experiences for our learners! Working with people is the core of our mahi and our learners have a strong foundation from which to grow.
We work in partnership with each placement provider to ensure there is a good fit between placement context and student, and the overall placement process is supported through meetings at the beginning, middle and end of the placement period.
If you are interested and would like to know more, please email our administrator Amanda Henson Molloy or phone 0800 762 786.
Student stories
Contact us
If you want to know more about what we offer or you would like some guidance, we’re here to help. Feel free to chat to us directly about any questions you may have.
