Personal Care Assistant

What You Will Do

As a personal care assistant, you will help people with the practical activities of daily life, bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, and mobility. These tasks are intimate and important. We train our students to approach them with skill, dignity, and respect.

This is the foundation role in care work. Every aged care worker and disability support worker does personal care. We make sure you are confident and competent before you step into a workplace.

Your daily tasks will include assisting with showers and baths, helping people dress and undress, supporting continence and toileting, assisting with eating and drinking, and helping with mobility, transfers, walking, wheelchair use. We cover all of this in our training.

The Demand

Personal care assistants are needed across every aged care facility and disability service in Australia. According to HumanAbility, around 48% of the residential aged care workforce are personal care workers, it is the largest job category in the sector.

We are seeing strong demand in both metropolitan and regional areas. If you are willing to work, you will find work. That is the reality of this sector right now, and we prepare our students to take advantage of it.

Pay and Conditions

Personal care roles are covered by either the Aged Care Award or the SCHADS Award, depending on your employer. The 2024 Fair Work wage increase means aged care workers are now earning significantly more than they were, a recognition that this work matters.

Most employers offer a mix of shift patterns. We help our students understand what to expect and how to find roles that fit their circumstances, whether that is full-time, part-time, or casual.

What We Teach You

Our CHC33021 Certificate III in Individual Support covers everything you need to work as a personal care assistant. We teach the practical skills, manual handling, infection control, personal care techniques, alongside communication, ethics, and person-centred approaches.

You will complete 120 hours of practical placement as part of our course. We believe that is essential, you need real experience before you are job-ready, and we make sure you get it.

Where You Can Go From Here

Personal care assistant is often a starting point. Once you have built experience, we can help you move into more senior roles, specialist areas, or coordination positions.

We are here to support your career over time. Talk to us about what you want to achieve, and we will help you build a path to get there.

Is This Role Right for You?

We find this career suits people who are practical, patient, and comfortable with physical work. You need to be okay with intimate care tasks, that is a big part of the job. And you need to genuinely care about treating people with dignity.

If that sounds like you, we would love to help you get started.