A good number of colleges are now offering aged care courses, where highly qualified faculties are recruited to teach according to the latest industry standards. The main driving factor behind it is the steady growth of the aged care sector. If you’re one of the aspirants, you will need to enrol in a Certificate III in Individual Support (Aging and Disability). This blog will provide you with a comprehensive guide on how this course may help you in your professional career.
What can you learn in Certificate III in Aged Care?
In Certificate III in Aged Care, you will mostly gain knowledge in three primary areas.
Aging
If you love being with elderly people, this course area can be your favourite one for you. You will learn how to provide basic support to your clients and help them live a quality life. When working with elderly people, you will need technical skills as well as a compassionate attitude. Taking professional training will help you to get equipped with these skills.
Home and community
If you are interested in providing support to older people at their homes and not at any private facility centres, you must study this area. As a professional, you will need to travel to different clients’ homes, which may be more than one in a single day. The job of a home and community support worker involves assisting the clients in household chores. This study area will help you learn how to tackle those things.
Disability
A person with cognitive disabilities will always feel mentally depressed with their situations. So, the role of a disability support worker involves dealing with different aspects like decision making, independence, personal choice, and community participation. Formal training will equip you with the skills required to face other challenges while taking care of a disabled person.
The course usually includes both theoretical and hands-on training. All the students must complete a placement training of 120 hours in a professional environment, which will give you explicit knowledge about workplace duties.
What will be the Available Job Options after Completing the Course?
Once you complete your Certificate 3 in Individual Support from any Perth college, you will have the following job options available.
Aged Care Support Worker
The usual responsibilities of an aged care worker include:
1. Providing home assistance, medical care, and emotional support to the older Australians.
2. Helping them in regular activities like dressing and taking showers.
3. Arranging transport so that they can participate in community activities.
As a professional, you can work in different work settings like retirement homes, hospitals, community care centres, nursing homes, or private residences. If you choose to work in private homes, you will need to work as an individual. But in other work settings, you will have to work with a team.
How can the course help you?
A Certificate III course will help you acquire a wide range of techniques and skills you should have to work as a professional aged care worker. Study units of this course are focused on specialised areas like ‘provide individualised support’, ‘support independence and wellbeing’, ‘communicate and work in health and community services, etc. From these units, you will learn the basics of aged care facilities. Placement training will help you gain skills to respond quickly to unusual situations.
Nursing Assistants
If you prefer working in clinical care over any community facility centre or private residence, the job of a nursing assistant will be the best option for you. The role of a nursing assistant is highly crucial, and so healthcare centres rely heavily on them.
Besides taking care of the patients, the nursing assistants are also expected to provide support for the administration.
For this profession, make sure you are physically fit and powerful because if the situation demands, you may need to carry or lift or move a patient. The responsibilities of a nursing assistant include:
1. Dressing, feeding, and bathing patients
2. Monitoring vital signs
3. Administering medications
4. Tracking the health conditions of the patients
5. Scheduling appointments with therapists
How can the course help you?
In addition to usual aged care training, a nursing assistant must have extensive medical and clinical knowledge. In the Certificate 3 course, you will find a unit, ‘Recognise health body systems’. This unit will give fundamental knowledge about the human anatomy, from which you can understand the type of care a specific symptom needs.
Disability Support Worker
A disability support worker needs to give support and care to people with physical, mental and cognitive disabilities. Thus, individuals with natural empathy and compassion are the perfect candidates for the role.
Note that you may have to come across different challenges when handling such a person, and thus you have to be very careful with your attitude. Being well aware of these kinds of potential situations can help you easily overcome the challenges. But, if you can do the job successfully, nothing can be more satisfying in your life. Seeing someone succeed after several failed attempts will indeed be a rewarding scene.
As a disability support worker, too, you may choose to work in different work settings like hospitals, clinics, homes, or care centres. Since introducing the National Disability Insurance Scheme or NDIS, more people are now joining this sector.
How can the course help you?
This course has four specified units associated with disability support: ‘ Follow established person-centred behaviour supports’, ‘Facilitate the empowerment of people with disability, etc. Studying these units can help you understand the basic needs of this sector.
Final words
Perth is one of the beautiful cities in Australia for study and work. It is also one of those cities where aged care is considered a highly respected service. So, if you want to settle here, you should look for the aged care training Services available in Perth and get yourself enrolled there. Course information will be available on the institute websites.
