The Accreditation of the Skills of Overseas Trained Workers

The recognition of overseas qualifications in Australia continues to be a major problem experienced by migrants, either through a lack of adequate verifiable documentation, difficulties in determining parity with local qualifications, or through problems associated with accrediting experience subsequent to basic training. Rather than the valuation of formal paper qualifications, it is suggested that the skills currently held by the migrant be assessed. The assessment of skills is a more productive and equitable model and should be developed, especially in the context of a dynamic labour market and of a greater emphasis being placed on skills in Australia's immigration policy.     

Intimate Partner Violence and Social Relational Theory: Examining the Influence of Children and Important Others on Mothers' Transition Out of Violent Relationships

Interviews with survivors of intimate partner violence were conducted to gain information on the transition from violent relationships to new non‐violent relationships. A subset of this data was re‐analysed using Social Relational Theory to gain further insight into the roles of children and important others who were identified as impacting this transition for mothers who had exited violent relationships. This paper reviews two major themes discovered during the SRT analysis that were inherent in the women's experiences: (i) agency of children, family, peers and community and (ii) power. In addition, this paper suggests implications for research, intervention and psychotherapeutic practice.     

Community development: working in the bicultural context of Aotearoa New Zealand

This paper explores the relationship between community developmentand working within bicultural contexts in Aotearoa New Zealand.It identifies a number of key themes that have been found bythe authors to have significance for working with biculturalcontexts. It provides definitions that are used within AotearoaNew Zealand and identifies how lessons learned in this countryhave relevance for an international context. While the paperexamines the tensions and struggles in working within a biculturalframework, it also articulates possibilities for sustained changethat has positive outcomes for diverse populations.     

Harnessing Resistance in Interventions with Young People

This article draws on the findings from the qualitative phase of a New Zealand longitudinal study concerning vulnerable young people’s transitions to adulthood. The young people, aged between 12 and 17 at the time of the first interview had sustained exposure to harm (abuse, violence, addictions, disengagement from school and mental health issues) and were clients of statutory and non-governmental services including: child welfare services, juvenile justice services, remedial education services and mental health services. Qualitative interviews explored young people’s experiences of services, their key transitions, their coping capacities, and the strategies they used to locate support and resources to mitigate the effects of harmful events and environments. There were three stages to the qualitative phase of the study; this article draws on the interviews from stage one and two. It explores the idea of resistance which emerged as a key theme in the data analysis. Three thematic clusters are presented: the nature of young people’s resistance; practitioner responses to resistance; and harnessing resistance in interventions. The article concludes with a discussion of how social workers and other practitioners can understand resistance and build more responsive and meaningful relationships with vulnerable youth.