Social work is a profession dedicated to helping others and applying professional knowledge, skills and methods to social problems, and it plays a key role in ensuring harmony and stability in modern society. In short, social workers provide professional services to people in need within the context of specific cultural and social systems, and in relation to specific social welfare systems and policies. In Australia, a country with a strong and mature social welfare system, social workers play a vital role, with a wide range of government departments, charities and not-for-profit organisations actively recruiting social work professionals every year.