Last month our Director, Phoebe Kitto, was invited by Cairns Employment Facilitators, Tamilyn Brennan and Danielle Carey, to be a panellist at the Aged and Disability Care Jobs Forum held at the Mareeba Leagues Club in response to the needs of local employers.

Busting the Myths about working in Aged & Disability Care provided 40 attendees the opportunity to have their questions answered by employers, customers, the Department of Small Business Employment and Training, Strategix Training, HR Dynamics and a panel of workers from St Johns Community Care, Southern Cross Social Services, Disability Matters, Mulgrave Complete Care and RADCARE Support Services.

According to Local Jobs Program, the event was a great success with Southern Cross Support Services considering four applicants for positions and Mulgrave Complete Care a further two.

Employees came from a variety of backgrounds including teaching, carpentry and IT. All agreed job satisfaction was the number one benefit of working in the sector, however many employers also provide paid qualifications, on the job training, salary sacrificing, career progression opportunities and long-term job security. Employees also benefit from flexible hours, work life balance, job variety, and the ability to control earning through casual hours worked and working for multiple employers.

Recent research predicts there will be around 179,000 job openings over the next 5 years in Australia in the Aged and Disability and Nursing sectors.

Local Jobs Program stress that care work isn’t limited to wiping butts and showering people. There are a variety of other roles available inoperations, marketing, gardening, cleaning, management, hospitality,maintenance, admissions officer and more. Care work is ideal for people-who-like-people, ex-hospitality workers, ex-retail workers, ex-medicalworkers, parents returning to the workforce and anyone who wants to work in anindustry that makes a REAL difference in the lives of our community.

Jobseekers interested in working in the sector should contact employers directly.

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