How an Individual Support Course Prepares You for a Job in Aged Care

How an individual support course prepares you for an aged care job

Wondering how to start a career in aged care? It takes a compassionate and caring person to want to help those in need. We find it commendable that you’re looking to continue your education in this way.

At Global Business College of Australia, we want to support you in your journey.

To pursue aged care in Melbourne, we recommend taking our individual support course. Need help making the decision? We’ve put together this in-depth look at what to expect from studying a certificate III in Individual Support.

What Will You Learn from an Individual Support Course?

Aged care courses help you build knowledge and practical skills in the field so that you can properly care for those in need. Not only will you need to know some health care basics, but you’ll also need to be knowledgeable about the law, ethics, and communicating effectively. Further, you’ll need hands-on practice regarding dealing with people and solving problems quickly.

Once you are positive that you meet all the entry requirements for the certificate, read on to learn about the structure and details of the course.

Course Features

The Global Business College of Australia Individual Support Course has four main features that make up its structure. To receive your Certificate III in Individual Support, you must complete all the requirements of each feature. The course officially runs for 52 weeks at 20 hours per week.

Further broken down, the length of the course consists of:

  • 30 weeks of internal training
  • 6 weeks of vocational placement
  • 4 weeks of catch-up class, reassessments, and additional placements if necessary
  • 12 weeks of holidays

Overall, the certificate provides the knowledge you need to succeed in your aged care career. One of the most important components of your education, however, is the hands-on practice you’ll receive with our program.

The first feature is practical work placements, in which each enrolled student must complete at least 120 hours of work. Thankfully, you won’t have to find work on your own. At GBCA, we have partnerships with local employers who regularly welcome our students into entry-level roles.

When it’s time to place you in a work environment, the CBCA Work Placement Coordinator will help you find and apply for a position. If you’d like to find work on your own, you are more than welcome to do so.

As a part of your work placement, you must complete a project, portfolio, and journal.

The second feature is the simulation task. The simulation task will be one of the methods of your assessment in which you’ll prove your knowledge during a simulated real-life situation.

The third feature is role play, in which you’ll participate in activities with your peers. In this feature, you’ll learn about many common situations you could encounter and build your skills in response.

Finally, you’ll be assessed with a supervisor report of your work during the program.

Course Units

At GBCA, we pride ourselves on providing a well-rounded education in aged care. To offer the best education, we combine rigorous coursework with practical skills. In our program, we provide units in which you’ll learn how to:

  • Provide individualised and personal support for patients in a person-centred way
  • Support the independence and well being of patients and empower aged people
  • Effectively communicate and function within health or community services, especially in a diverse environment
  • Follow procedures and safe practices, including infection prevention and control, while conforming to legal and ethical guidelines
  • Understand and recognise the healthy function of the body, signs of dementia, and how to support those with special needs

Throughout the program, you’ll take specialised aged care courses and disability care courses so that you can work to support aged and disabled patients.

Overall, the goal of this program is to teach you how to support and empower aged patients in their daily lives with person-centred care. Bolstered with the knowledge of healthy body functions, legal and ethical procedures, and how to work well within a health care environment, you’ll become a successful aged care assistant or support worker.

 

Transitioning Into Your Career

It’s great to understand the structure of the program and what’s required of you, but what’s important is how you’ll transition into your career. Because our program is built on practical knowledge, you’ll already be immersed in the work environment and building your skills. Once you graduate from the program, you can choose to go into several positions.

As someone with an education and work experience in individual support, you can find work in many different venues. You’ll be qualified to work as a personal care worker, an aged care support worker, or a disability support worker. These qualifications will allow you to apply for work at:

  • Nursing homes
  • Retirement villages
  • Aged care centres
  • Home care
  • Residential aged care facilities

As an aged care support worker, you’ll support and empower elderly patients both physically and emotionally. You’ll be equipped to provide help in daily tasks and clinical care. As a professional in disability support, you’ll provide similar support to those with disabilities and work with other professionals to bolster mental and physical well-being.

With close relationships with local employers, graduates of the program can easily find internships and vocational placements as well as full-time careers. Outside our network, you can find work due to your education at an accredited school and program. The course is Nationally Recognised Training accredited and Australian Qualifications Framework accredited.

Kickstart Your Aged Care Career

Whether you’re wondering how to start a career in disability care or aged care, you’ll no longer have to ask, “Where can I study an aged care course in Melbourne?” At Global Business College of Australia, we have all the knowledge and experience you need.

Ready to get started? Sign up for our newsletter to get more information about the Individual Support Course, and contact our team to get started on your journey!

Career tip: Resume Mistakes To Avoid 5

The message of the final instalment of our Resume series might come as a surprise to many of you: Don’t include incorrect contact information in your application!

Consider this: You’ve taken the time and effort to review our resume and cover letter. In may ways, you should be the top contender for the job! So why haven’t you heard from the employer? You look at your emails and check the sent folder, only to discover that you’ve included an incorrect email address.

If you’re lucky and the employer is still interested to meet with you, they might decide to contact you and give you an opportunity to rectify this mistake. However, a small mistake like this can spell doom for your application, especially if the other top contenders provided correct and well-formatted information.

Another potential issue that you should consider is the name of your email address. Your email address is part of your professional identity. A suggestive, flirtatious or funny email address might be entertaining amongst friends, but it could cause potential employers to dismiss your application out of principle. Consider creating a separate email account for job applications. Try following these guidelines when making a professional email account:

  • Make it easy to remember.
  • Have the address include your first and last names.
  • Do not share the account with friends or family.
  • Avoid using numbers or other symbols.
  • Register it on your LinkedIn profile, which should be treated differently to your other social media accounts.
  • Ensure that you include the correct spelling of your email address on both your resume and cover letter.

This article was written and edited by Arthur Chan and Matthew Leach. 
中文版,由Arthur,Cissy和Nebula编写和编辑 (WeChat or browser compatible, coming soon)

The GBCA team would like to wish all current students and alumni best of luck when seeking employment. It is not easy and sometimes, with the best efforts one may still not be selected for an interview – don’t give up or overthink, we are living in an era where there are just too many options available, if you had tried your best, you should not have any regrets and keep on trying.

Best wishes

GBCA

Career tip: Resume Mistakes To Avoid 4

It’s common to apply for a number of different positions at the same time. Many people doing so will likely resolve to make a one-size-fits-all resume. While a generalised resume isn’t necessarily a bad thing and can often be quite useful, it might not be as highly regarded as applications that are customised specifically for the advertised position.

If you’ve already made a general resume, try comparing it with the selection criteria listed on a job advertisement. Remove any points that may be irrelevant and try rephrasing existing points that best demonstrate your skills that are relevant to the criteria listed. It may take an additional thirty minutes, but it’ll help you stand out amongst the crowd of applicants.

Remember, even if the position titles of two job vacancies are the same, the relevant selection criteria on each advertisement could be completely different, so your applications should not be identical if you intend to apply for both positions.

This article was written and edited by Arthur Chan and Matthew Leach
中文版,由Arthur,Cissy和Nebula编写和编辑 (WeChat or browser compatible, coming soon)

 

Career tip: Resume Mistakes To Avoid 3

Do you have strong graphic design skills? People entering the work force might feel the need to polish their resume up with some impressive visuals in order to balance out a short resume. Unfortunately, this will only make potential employers more likely to dismiss these applications.

We discussed this matter with some of our community collaborators and found that many of them prefer a clean, clearly formatted document with font no larger than size 14 with a maximum of four pages. An elaborate visual design, while potentially enjoyable to look at, can come across as unprofessional.

While professions that relate to graphic design might benefit from a resume with wonderful visuals, recruiters would still be expected to want to see the history of an applicant’s career before moving on to examining their visual portfolio.

If you’re struggling to include information in your resume, why not try including a short paragraph that outlines your skills? Try including information about the places that you’ve volunteered; if there’s any point of relevancy to the job that you’re offering, write a short paragraph and describe how the volunteering experience may be beneficial to the job that you’re applying for. If you covered your experience, skills and education in a one-page resume, use your cover letter to explain how they might be compatible with the job that you’re applying for.

Good luck!

This article was written and edited by Arthur Chan and Matthew Leach.
中文版,由Arthur,Cissy和Nebula编写和编辑 (WeChat or browser compatible, coming soon)

Career tip: Resume Mistakes To Avoid 2

GBCA would like to thank our students for their support of the Career tip – we’re coming back early!
Based on student’s feedback – we would like to share a short series that focus on some of resume mistakes which active job seekers may find useful….
If you have any questions or seeking advice, please email career@gbca.edu.au or stay tuned for our career seminars commencing in February 2019!

Have you ever met someone at a party that you found either attractive or a good potential friend? It might be because they communicate well.

Let’s explore the subject of communication in regards to resumes. Your resume is your professional file. As such, it should communicate why you are a qualified individual to potential employers. Make sure to outline your career experience in order to demonstrate why you are suitable for the position. If there are any hobbies or activities that you enjoy that might be compatible with the position, consider adding them to your resume.

With that said, you should avoid including any unprofessional content in your resume that might limit your chances of success. Irrelevant hobbies or an unprofessional email address could spell doom for an otherwise excellent application. If you do want to add a personal touch to your resume, try to restrict it to items that are still relevant to the job or industry.

Let’s think about the party scenario again: if you meet someone who’s jump from 1 topic to another every 30 seconds, do you you would be taking this person seriously?  

This article was written and edited by Arthur Chan and Matthew Leach.  
中文版,由Arthur,Cissy和Nebula编写和编辑 (WeChat or browser compatible, coming soon)

Career tip: Resume Mistakes To Avoid 1

GBCA would like to thank our students for their support of the Career tip – we’re coming back early!

Many had expressed to us that they felt sometimes their job applications had disappeared into a void that nobody had actually read it – It could be true and can certainly be discouraging, we would like to share some resume writing tips that would increase your chance of getting an interview offer. Please note these are not the “holy grail” of resume writing, each application is different and should be different. If you have any questions or seeking advice, please email career@gbca.edu.au or stay tuned for our career seminars commencing in February 2019!

Most recruiters have identified spelling and grammatical errors as the leading factor in whether or not a resume would be shortlisted. There are many apps that provide Auto-Correct functions, but spelling and grammatical errors are still a pervasive issue in job applications. Here are some of the examples that the majority of apps will not detect:
1. “principle” and “principal”
2. “affect” and “effect”
3. “they’re” and “their”
4. “its” and “it’s”
Please take the time to review what you’ve included in your application. Try revisiting the application after a good night’s sleep and, if you’re unsure, ask a qualified friend to proofread your resume.

Some people rush through their job applications, only to get nothing in return. Giving your resume a little bit of extra love and care is just like spending a few minutes to make sure that you look nice before you leave the house: That additional effort could be what you need to turn a few heads!

This article was written and edited by Arthur Chan and Matthew Leach.
中文版,由Arthur,Cissy和Nebula编写和编辑 (WeChat or browser compatible, coming soon)

Career tip: Ask when you have the chance

A good interview is a two-way conversation. You should aim to have a discussion with your interviewer about where your resume matched the job description. Try using the information that you’ll learn from these discussions to improve upon your resume.

In most cases, employers will perceive an interviewee who does not ask questions when offered the chance as either unprepared or disinterested. Use this as an opportunity to get to know more about both your potential employer and the job that they might offer you.

The best questions that you can ask will be based around the conversation that you just had. Make sure to prepare a couple of interchangeable questions that relate to the position prior to the interview. Don’t stress if you don’t feel like the questions you’ve prepared are suitable; you can always ask about the company’s internal culture or how the position that you are being interviewed for became available.

This article was written and edited by Arthur Chan and Matthew Leach.
中文版,由Arthur,Cissy和Nebula编写和编辑 (WeChat or browser compatible)

(Career tip will return in Feb 2019, we would like the thank the kind DMs and cards from our students! To revisit our career tips so far, follow #GBCAAU #bejobready on our official social media channels and blog!) 

Career tip: Be kind about past experiences

Badmouthing anyone at any point of a job interview will make you come across as someone with a bad attitude. You wouldn’t want to show a potential employer that you’re someone that may be difficult to get along with.

Occasionally, an interview might attempt to test your attitude by asking questions, such as “Have you ever worked with someone you didn’t like?”. This might seem like a prompt for a negative response, but instead of speaking ill of a past employer or colleague, try focusing on what the problem was and how you ultimately dealt with it. Explaining how you contributed towards resolving the issue can be a great way to showcase your communication skills.

This article was written and edited by Arthur Chan and Matthew Leach.
中文版,由Arthur,Cissy和Nebula编写和编辑 (WeChat or browser compatible)

Career tip: Be 15 mins early (to an interview)

First impressions can take you a long way. We all know that if you don’t hand in your application for a job on time, you won’t be considered for the position. As such, you should avoid arriving late to your interview at all costs.

In any professional environment, showing up late implies that you are either disorganized and unable to manage your schedule properly or that you simply don’t care enough about your job to be there in a timely manner. As such, turning up late to an interview can cost you a valuable opportunity.

To avoid this major mistake, why not practice travelling from your home to the location of the interview ahead of time? This will ensure that you have a route planned out and that you’ll be aware of how long the trip will take.

On the day of the interview, arriving fifteen minutes in advance can be a great way to show that you are both keen and organised. It can also give you the time you might need to deal with your nerves, enjoy a quick break or provide a buffer against any unexpected traffic that might have slowed you down.

If your interview is being conducted over the internet, you should still make sure that you’re ready fifteen minutes ahead of schedule. Consider sending a quick “hello” message to your interview and offer to test the connection with them. They might not respond but it is a nice way to show that you care about this opportunity and that you are willing to take initiative.

This article was written and edited by Arthur Chan and Matthew Leach.
中文版,由Arthur,Cissy和Nebula编写和编辑 (WeChat or browser compatible)

Career tip: Are you a Show-Off?

Just as reality shows often dramatise how people brag about their abilities to the point of borderline arrogance, individuals with a strong personality may come across as overly prideful without realising it. Ask yourself: is this the best way that you can present yourself?

There’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance. In order to not come across as a show-off, you should avoid over-selling yourself. Be honest with your colleagues and with yourself; being open about your weaknesses and showing the willingness to learn and develop will do a lot more for you than being disingenuous and feigning competence.

Think about the “Reality Stars”, many said they’re “not themselves when the cameras are rolling.” 

This article was written and edited by Arthur Chan and Matthew Leach.
中文版,由Arthur,Cissy和Nebula编写和编辑 (WeChat or browser compatible)