Experience safety and stability

Creating a good everyday life is an important task for Eva Leibetzeder, who works as a social worker in a crisis residential group. “It’s like family life. It starts with waking up and having breakfast together. While the kids are at school or in kindergarten, I have a lot of organizational tasks, such as E.g. arranging doctor’s appointments, exchange with other helper systems or in the team and documentation.” In the afternoons, homework is done and things that bother the children are often discussed. “I like accompanying children in challenging situations and supporting them in overcoming crises,” says the 24-year-old.

After graduating from high school, Leibetzeder did a voluntary social year before starting the FH course, which she describes as practical and varied. “During the training, I not only learned a lot for my job, but also as a person and for my life.”

Versatile and demanding

With a university degree in social and business communication, Charles Scheemian initially worked in advertising. “It’s about selling products and brands, but not about the well-being of people. In the end I asked myself what is closer to my heart: How do I benefit from my job or what can I give? So I reorientated myself.” The training to become an academic socio-pedagogical supervisor not only offered him professional qualifications: “Since I come from another country, the community in the course was not just a field of learning, but also a social connection. I particularly liked the adventure-pedagogical seminar in the wilderness of Lapland, where we only had to use a map and compass to orientate ourselves.”

As a socio-pedagogical family carer, the career changer travels a lot. “I have to take responsibility for my appointments and measures, and I can act very freely. My everyday work is demanding and exhausting, but also extremely varied. Leisure time activities, school support, finding after-school care places, initiating therapies, cooperation with child and youth welfare and other helper systems, writing care plans, accompanying parents to authorities, advising on practical life issues. Ultimately, it is also about being an educational role model. I experience my job as an agent on a family mission”.

Information on the course “Academic Social Pedagogical Supervisor”: www.fh-ooe.at/sf