Two new internships have been announced for Charles Sturt University (CSU) students who live and work in western NSW.

The child protection caseworker internships are a new agreement between CSU and the NSW Department of Family and Community Services (FACS).

Dr Cate Thomas, course director and senior lecturer social work in the CSU School of Humanities and Social Sciences, said, "This is the first opportunity of this kind to be made available to final-year social work students, and is only available at Charles Sturt University.

"These are paid internships for final-year students who are then bonded to the agency for a further two years. Their student fees for that year will also be paid by the agency. All social work students going into their final-year are eligible to apply and there are a significant number who are eligible. The two positions will be recruited via open market recruitment for Charles Sturt University students only."

Dr Thomas said eligible students need to live and work in the Western District (Coonamble and Bourke clusters) for three years, and, if successfully assessed and offered an internship, they will need to sign a Deed of Agreement outlining the terms and conditions of the three-year internship.

To apply, students will need to go through the online advertisement on Jobs.NSW which opened on Wednesday 3 December and will close on Sunday 18 January 2015.

The FACS/CSU internship program involves commencing full-time work as a caseworker (minimum Grade 3, salary of $64 008) in FACS Western District in 2015 while completing the final year of study. There will be two internships offered in 2015.

Students who attend an Assessment Centre, as part of the application process, and are successful but do not get offered one of the two internships in 2015 will remain in a talent pool for the caseworker role and will not need to reapply.