Dental Health
Career opportunities: Dental Prosthetist, Dental Technician, Dental Assistant, Practice Manager.
Southbank Institute is the only provider of Certificate III in Dental Assisting to non-workers. All other institutions require their students to be already working in the industry before they can study this qualification.
Instrument Processing and Infection Control in Office-based Practice FFS533 makes up part of the Certificate III in Dental Assisting course. Therefore, on successful completion the units can be put towards completing the full Dental Assisting Certificate qualification.
Theoretical component is delivered online and students must then attend an on-campus assessment.
Two Certificate IV in Dental Assisting qualifications are offered:
- Oral Health Promotion - delivered 100% online enabling completion from a metro or regional area.
- Extended Duties - is delivered mostly online, with students required to attend a four-day on-campus practical for their elective units.
In 2010-11, 40% of Dental Assisting graduates were offered immediate employment as a result of vocational placements during the course.
“I have a private practice and we absolutely love the girls from Southbank Institute of Technology (SBIT). We have greater success in hiring and retaining the staff because they ‘want’ to be in the industry! They have the background of safety and sterilisation which is a great foundation to work from. When we invest in a new employee we don’t expect them to know everything and we love to teach our way and our culture, to instil our vision and mission.
The best thing is they can fit to how we do things quite easily. In the past we have employed experienced DA's and they are not shy in telling the dentist how he should do things and are reluctant to change their old bad habits (e.g. handpieces do not go in the ultra sonic!!- no matter how many times we told and printed product literature). In the end, I feel the Cert III is the foot in the door, it tells the employer you have invested in your future and have a commitment to be there. It is up to the practice to make the best DA out of the new employee.
The industry itself has a large turnover rate, but since we employed SBIT students our retention rate has gone up. I love to think that when life takes them somewhere else, that our practise has helped them and inspired them to a wonderful career in dentistry. (One is studying to be a Hygienist and two are Practise Managers).”
Kellie Forbes, Practice Manager at Urban Dental.
We also offer two Diploma qualifications in the dental field:
Last updated 13 July, 2011