Michaela Cronin

Director of the Future Social Service Institute (FSSI), an RMIT and VCOSS collaboration. 

These changes create widespread uncertainty as actors across the system struggle to make sense of and adapt to these tectonic shifts. 

Five Royal Commissions in six years is emblematic of systemic failure, underscoring why we need to build new capabilities, new approaches, new roles and new tools that can help the whole community and institutions across the social services ecosystem adapt, respond and thrive in an unpredictable and complex environment.

Social service innovation

The Future Social Service Institute (FSSI) is a trailblazing collaboration between RMIT, the Victorian Council of Social Service and the Victorian Government. It exists to walk alongside the sector, listen, learn and lead at individual, institutional and system levels. 

We do this through a suite of activities developed and undertaken in partnership with the sector. 

These include innovative, inclusive education and training programs, engagement to build leadership capability and high quality research and evaluation, demonstrating the value and potential of new approaches to workforce growth and development. 

My career has spanned the Social Service sector. I recently spent more than three years in Cambodia as global CEO for Hagar International, which works with women and children who have experienced slavery, human trafficking and significant human rights abuses across Asia and Afghanistan. 

Back in Australia, I’m incredibly excited by the work that FSSI and RMIT are doing, partnering with industry to improve outcomes for people who rely on Social Services in the community. 

Together, RMIT and VCOSS have helped to drive a significant shift in how the sector is viewed, moving it from a welfare paradigm to one focused on the social economy and jobs growth. 

Driving industry growth

The social service sector is the workforce of the future. Victoria’s healthcare sector already employs almost 13 per cent of the state’s workforce. The NDIS and an ageing population will see this continue to grow dramatically. Victoria’s social service sector will need a projected 60,000 more workers in the next five years.

I recently attended the celebration of graduates from a course designed in partnership with industry. Many would not have enrolled in, or completed the program without the wrap around support of FSSI.

We need more of this. RMIT brings together higher education and research capabilities, vocational education and a deep knowledge of how to work in partnership with industry.

Our goal is to drive the growth of a world-class industry that boosts the economy, provides high-quality secure jobs and delivers exceptional social services. Together, we have an opportunity and a responsibility to listen to people’s experiences, innovate through co-design and lead transformational change.