Rachelle: The Child Protection Employment Program is incredibly important because it gives you those skills and those foundations that you need to become a practice leader or a practitioner within child protection.
Jacqulyn: It allows students and new graduates to come into a field that is very challenging and experience that first-hand and that helps them build their resilience and also helps guide them where they would like their practice to go.
Andrew: I've found most rewarding being able to help children, particularly reunifying children with their families and working with families to make sure that it's safe to do that.
Mikala: The highlight of the program is the rotations and sitting in investigations where every day is different.
Jacqulyn: The typical day would be: CPEP comes in, we have a catch up in the morning around the tasks and responsibilities for the day paired up with a partner and then it's out the door and hitting the road out to see families and do client visits.
Rachelle: Being based in the Bendigo Regional Office has exposed me to many connections within the community of Bendigo, as well as making those really close friendships with colleagues because you're with them day in and day out on the road for hours at a time, and it's really good to have that support behind you as well.
Andrew: If you're on the fence about going into child protection, this is a really good step and you get to experience everything before actually jumping in.
Mikala: It teaches you stuff other programs cannot teach you and it is honestly an amazing experience and I recommend it for everyone.
[End of transcript]
Updated