Career Opportunities

Work opportunities in international health are extraordinarily diverse and can present themselves as totally clinical, totally non-clinical and all combinations in between. Examples of non-clinical work relate to project management, team leader positions, project evaluation, research, health economics, health policy and community development.

Higher qualifications enhance career opportunities. Programs in the Centre aim to achieve this through the acquisition of specialised knowledge in rapidly expanding areas of health that transcend national boundaries. It is anticipated that graduates of the Centre for International Health programs will take up significant positions in international organisations.

Students in the Centre cover a diverse range of disciplines. Roughly half already have international health work experience and are undertaking the course so that they can obtain more senior positions in international health. The remainder are people with conventional backgrounds, often in health but not always, who wish to break into the arena of international health. Many of the students undertaking our course have a clinical background (nursing, medical, occupational therapy, physiotherapy or dental), however, many of them are undertaking the course in an endeavour to work in health project management or community health research. Other students come from a variety of backgrounds other than health sciences, including social work, marketing, environmental health, psychology, social sciences, politics, information systems, community education, veterinary science and health administration back grounds.

In terms of employment prospects, previous overseas work experience is valuable as is a postgraduate educational background in international health and any international network known to you. We have students who have worked for many government and non-government organisations both here and overseas such as Australian Red Cross, Medicins Sans Frontiers, rural, remote and refugee and migrant health services in Australia.

One of the Centre's Senior Lecturers, Dr David Wilson has had extensive experience working in international health settings around the world. His presentation on employment opportunities in international health is available for viewing here.

Another good starting point for future employment is to visit potential employer's websites and see what opportunities exist. Dr Wilson has developed a list of valuable sites, available here.

For more information on employment and volunteering opportunities, click here.