Work Placement Guide
Certificate III in Individual Support Work Placement Guide for Human Services Providers and RTOs
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Work placements in disability support and aged care
Work in the disability and aged care sectors is unique, rewarding and challenging. Many of the required skills and behaviours are hard to teach in a classroom, so it’s critical that students preparing for work in these sectors are exposed to real workplaces and real clients as part of their studies.
This exposure:
- helps students to understand what the work involves and whether they are suited to it
- ensures new graduates can apply their skills and knowledge in real-world situations
- makes graduates more employable
- provides service providers and clients with support workers and carers who are skilled and well
- prepared for work in the sector.
Work placements
Learn more about the benefits and features of high-quality work placements.
Strong collaboration
Guidance on how to select, build and maintain relationships with quality partners.
Clear roles, responsibilities and expectations
Help on defining clear roles, responsibilities and expectations between service providers.
Effective support for students
Assisting all parties understand their commitments during work placements.
Continuous Improvement
Guidance on how to ensure your work placement arrangements continue to work well for all parties involved.
Case Studies
Learn how other organisations are using Vocational Education and Training to grow and skill their workforce.
Useful contacts and resources
Important links, glossary and useful templates for you.
Students undertaking the Certificate III in Individual Support gain this exposure through work placements (also referred to as mandatory work requirements or vocational placements).
They must complete 120 hours of direct support work in at least one aged care, home and community care, disability or community service organisation to complete the qualification.
However, stakeholders in the disability support and aged care sectors report that the quality of these work placements is inconsistent.
While many employers and training providers have established strong collaborative arrangements to ensure work placements are effective and well managed and provide good learning and employment outcomes for students, this is not always the case.