Urgent need for young aged care professionals
New aged care training programs are attracting a cohort of health professionals; however, the proportion of aged care professionals under the age of 35 years in the workforce has not changed since 2003.
We need to train and develop the ‘next generation’ of the age care workforce says LASA Victoria chief executive Trevor Carr
Trevor Carr, LASA Victoria chief executive, says the agedcare industry needs to urgently attract more young people into the workforce.
“The proportion of aged care professionals under the age of 35 remains at 18%, in spite of the fact that the overall aged care workforce is rising,” Mr Carr says.
“While the residential aged care workforce grew 29% between 2003 and 2012, the average age for residential direct care workers is 48 years and 50 years for community direct care workers,” he says.
According to Mr Carr, there is a perception that aged care is an unappealing career option for people under 35 years, and yet there are many genuine career opportunities across the sector that can make a meaningful difference to people’s lives.
“Inside the industry, we know that aged care professionals derive a sense of satisfaction from the positive benefits they bring to those they are caring for. They find their careers satisfying and value the career opportunities the sector provides,” he says.
Mr Carr adds the current workforce is ageing and yet we are still seeing less and less young people entering our workforce.
“We need to create more awareness that working in aged care can be a very rewarding career pathway personally and professionally,” Mr Carr says.
Statistics are highlighting a critical shortage of aged care professionals today, and not as most policy makers are indicating five or 10 years from now.
The enormous demand for aged care services and corresponding workforce is fast becoming the biggest challenge facing the health sector, yet this is happening at the same time as demand for workforce in other sectors is declining.
The aged care sector is reportedly the fastest growing sector of health and its indicators are strong, with an estimated 80,000 additional residential aged care places required in the next 10 years, requiring infrastructure investment of $30 billion.
Mr Carr says the industry needs job growth of 300% to reach the 1,000,000 required to care for an ageing population.
“We need to train and develop the ‘next generation’ of the age care workforce, particularly for regional areas where we know the number of ageing people that are needing services is growing more rapidly than the national average,” he says.
One of the speakers on the topic of fostering and supporting young professionals in the Aged Care industry, at the Aged Care Leaders Symposium in Melbourne on 23 and 24 July 2015, is Samantha Bushell. As founder of the Acorn Network, Samantha is raising awareness of aged & community care workforce innovation and leadership with a focus on our Generation Y professionals. Find out more information on the Aged Care Leaders Symposium.
