Cork’s Vee is top Tusla social work apprentice

A Cork-based social worker has been named as the Tusla social work apprentice of the year.

Vee Moyo received the award at University College Cork (UCC), as Tusla celebrated the graduation of the first cohort of trainees from its social work apprenticeship programme.

Alongside Vee, a total of 32 Tusla apprentices were among 42 graduates conferred with a master of social work at UCC.

The graduates are now eligible to register as social workers and can continue their careers with Tusla, joining frontline services supporting children, young people, and families across Ireland at a time of increasing demand for social work services.

At the launch of the Tusla annual report, Vee spoke of how the apprenticeship programme had changed her life and was changing the lives of her newly-qualified colleagues also.

“I’m so grateful for all the support I’ve received,” Ms Moyo said. 

“I never thought a small girl from Bulawayo (Zimbabwe) would be where I am now. It’s a beautiful surprise.”

Vee works with children in care and is based in St Finbarr’s Hospital, where she attends to the needs of children and young people who are in foster care and residential care.

She said she was ready to hit the ground running thanks to the UCC/Tusla apprenticeship programme.

Aged 13, she and her mum, Regina, moved to South Africa to start a new life. Vee went to college and graduated in 2018 with a degree in psychology and criminology and then got a job supporting children with intellectual disabilities and autism.

As rewarding as the work was, life in South Africa was very tough for the two Moyo women.

“When covid came, I lost my job. I knew I had to start afresh, in a place where people would appreciate me for being me. My granny used to work for an Irish couple from Dublin, and she always said how nice they were. I remembered that story, so decided to come to Ireland.”

It wasn’t Dublin though, where Vee set her sights, but on Kerry, where a cousin was living.

“She took me on a little tour of the area, and one day we went to Cork. I loved that it was not too busy, and the calmness that I felt there, so that’s where I moved,” says Vee, who now has a distinct Cork twang.