Explore care and support sector careers

About the sector

This section provides an overview of the sector and the range of roles and career opportunities it offers.

Watch our video about exploring your options in the sector

This short video on the Job Jumpstart website will give you a brief introduction to the range of roles in the sector and help you to start thinking about whether you might be a good fit for work in the sector.

Explore the different roles available in the sector

The aged care and disability services sector includes residential aged care facilities and in-home support (both for the elderly and people with disability).

These are some examples of the types of activities undertaken by workers in the sector.

Read through these role profiles for more detailed information on the role and the key attributes and skills required:

• Residential Aged Care Support Worker
• In-Home Support Worker
• Hospitality and Facilities Management
• Administration
• Coordination and Management

Watch some videos to see examples of what work in this sector looks like

• The Care and Support Jobs website includes a number of videos from care and support workers, and the people they support
• Aged & Community Services SA & NT Inc has developed a video showing a range of aged and community care roles
• Student Edge has developed a video showing work in an aged care residential facility
• Kiama Municipal Council has developed a video showing a day in the life of an aged care worker in a home care setting

Review some of the many career pathways available in the sector

Here are some examples of what your career in the sector could look like. However, as you have probably realised from the information on this page, the range of opportunities in this sector are vast and workers enjoy a variety of career pathways.

Is the sector a good fit for me?

This section will help you to think about whether the sector is a good fit for you and which areas of the sector you might prefer.

It’s all about values

Employers in this sector are very focussed on finding candidates who share their organisation’s values – they often talk about finding “the right fit” candidates. Most organisations in the sector include their values on their website.

For aged care services, these values often include:

• integrity
• respect
• compassion
• resilience
• commitment to person-centred care
• awareness
• reliability

For disability services, these values often include:

• empowerment
• respect
• collaboration
• integrity
• resourcefulness
• accountability
• reliability

To help you think about how your values and working style fit this sector, take this short quiz.

What are the requirements for working in the sector?

This section provides details of some of the requirements for working in this sector. However, every employer in the sector is different, so it is important to check the role descriptions and job advertisements for each role you are applying for to identify the specific requirements for that role.

Requirements for most roles in the sector

• A national criminal history check (police check) will be required for most roles in the sector. Visit the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) website for further details on getting a police check.
• In addition to a police check, some roles may also require you to complete a Working with children/vulnerable people check. Visit the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) website for further details on getting a working with children check.
• Aged care roles only - from 1 May 2020, all aged care workers must have had the annual influenza (flu) vaccine for 2020 to work or visit an aged care facility. Further information is available on the Information for aged care providers, workers and residents page of the Department of Health website.
• Disability services roles only – Disability services roles only – you will need to complete the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission’s worker orientation online training module, ‘Quality, Safety and You’ and undertake a national NDIS Worker Screening Check.

What training options are available for the sector?

Some roles in the sector may require you to hold a formal qualification, while others may just require licences (such as a first aid certificate) or individual training modules.

Visit the Aged and Disabled Carers page on the Job Outlook website for guidance on possible accredited training pathways in this sector – select the 'Pathways' tab.

The Department of Health has also developed free online training modules for care workers across all health care settings on “How to protect yourself and the people you are caring for from infection with COVID-19”. This can be accessed via the COVID-19 infection control training page of the Department of Health website.