|
|
|
|
HEALTH has been revealed as the most popular field of study for potential tertiary students this year, but there are not enough training places available to meet the surge. The first figures released to The Advertiser by the South Australian Tertiary Admissions Centre show 24,952 university applicants have selected a stream of health studies as a preference for tertiary education - about 5000 more than last year's first-round preferences. However, the Australian Medical Association's state vice-president, Dr Jon Sporne, said although the boom was promising, more needed to be done to get these students into the workplace after study. "The Government needs to make provisions for more training places," Dr Sporne said. "With the undergraduate places needs to come a lot more graduate training opportunities." Dr Sporne said the areas of need were aged care, nurses and country general practitioners. He said students were attracted to the health sector for a number of reasons. "Society's need for nurses and aged-care workers is always going to increase because of our ageing population," he said. "I also suspect that students are choosing health as a reaction to the . . . economy as health is a more assured career. "They see it as secure." Health - covering courses in medicine, nursing and caring - has the greatest rise in applications for a major field this year. TAFE SA also recorded enrolled and registered nursing courses as among the most popular this year. Amy Hewitt, 22, has been through the nursing education system. She completed a bachelor of nursing at Flinders University in 2008, then did graduate nursing at the Lyell McEwin hospital, where she now works in the emergency department. "My course was quite popular when I started," she said. "You have got good variety in nursing. There are lots of areas to work in and you can interchange specialties reasonably easily." Society and culture is the second most popular sector for university applicants, with 19,559 preferences. The creative arts and information technology fields have also had about 9 per cent more applicants.
CANDICE KELLER, EDUCATION REPORTER Reported in Adelaide NOW |
|
|
|
|
Event Calendar
|
Featured Event
|
|
| HEALTH: The Wealth of the Nation Symposium |
| 24/11 - North Shore City |
| Opportunities for community health professionals to look forward... View Event |
|
Upcoming Events
|