Apprenticeship Careers Australia (ACA) implemented More Jobs More Care (MJMC), a NSW Government funded program to train new disability support workers. It was groundbreaking as it introduced traineeships to the sector.
ACA provided training and support to new staff, helping them develop the skills and knowledge to become support workers. The program created 1,700 new jobs in NSW, with 300 participants completing a traineeship.
This leveraged ACA’s expertise in training to facilitate new career paths for people in the care sector, helping participants to learn new skills, retrain and improve the quality of life for people with disabilities.
Objective
In June 2021, the NSW Government awarded a tender to ACA to implement the More Jobs More Care (MJMC) program. The program was designed to address the chronic staffing shortage in the NDIS sector. The tender ran through to September 2022 across South West Sydney, the Hunter, the North Coast, Riverina/Murray, and Western NSW.
ACA utilised this opportunity to educate NDIS providers about how traineeships could help bridge the current and forecasted workforce gap.
Challenges and context
The care and NDIS sector in NSW has a persistent, acute shortage of skilled staff. This is due to a number of factors, including:
- The growth of the sector
- Australia's aging population
- The increasing complexity of disability support needs
A Department of Social Services (DSS) report, NDIS National Workforce Plan: 2021–2025, details the challenges faced by the care and support sector. Despite being one of Australia’s largest and fastest growing sectors, unprecedented demand means it has thousands of unfilled vacancies, with, ‘an additional 83,000 NDIS workers expected to be required by 2024’.
We also need to acknowledge that this program was implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic which presented a number of challenges. Unemployment spiked and the logistics of accessing training and education during this period was difficult.
Approach: facilitation and implementation
ACA facilitated the 4-week course that provided participants with entry-level skills in disability support and a guaranteed 15-hour work placement.
The program also provided training and support to new staff to help them develop the skills and knowledge they need to provide high-quality support to people with disabilities.
"In the disability and aged care sectors no one talks about traineeships. No one knew what to expect from the program, but it worked! And we should support more businesses to be open to traineeships."
Brett Clarke - Program Manager
ACA used a number of approaches to optimize delivery of the program, including:
- Careful consideration to candidate and client journeys to ensure consistent and high-quality experiences from attraction to recruitment, through training and into work.
- Partnering with external technology providers to create a streamlined application and onboarding process.
- Using a ‘digital colleague’ to reduce the workload of mentors.
- Implementing a ‘Buddy Shift’ incentive program to reduce attrition.
- Funnelling unsuccessful candidates into alternative training and employment initiatives.
- Partnering with First Nations mentoring organization, Yilabara, and various multicultural organizations across the state to ensure specialist support was available for all candidates, as required.
- Multiple First Nations and CALD specific courses were also run in Sydney.
Results
ACA’s implementation of the MJMC program achieved a number of qualitative results:
- Trained and moved into employment 1707 new disability support workers into the sector, which included 312 traineeships entering the care workforce.
- An additional 32,000 hours of support for people with disabilities each week.
- It enabled people to retrain for an in-demand industry.
- Participants gained lifelong skills and a new career path.
- The program also helped to reduce the number of people who were unemployed or underemployed.
The MJMC program also had a number of other qualitative benefits, including increased access to quality disability support services, improved quality of life for people with disabilities and enhanced employment opportunities during the challenges of the COVID pandemic.
Introducing traineeships into the NDIS sector
Prior to this initiative, traineeships in the NDIS sector were a rarity. The ACA MJMC team rolled out an education piece for providers/employers in the sector to highlight the value of traineeships.
This included the innovative use of a ‘digital colleague’ or robot, which handled the initial onboarding process. It reduced the front-end workload of our (human) mentors by more than 45% - which allowed them to focus on supporting candidates through their training and development journey to post-placement.
"Candidates didn't know how to get a job in this sector and ACA made it possible by connecting them with the industry."
Tash Keshby - Regional Program Manager, ACA
Conclusion
MJMC was a successful initiative that helped to address the primary objective of the program – to address the staffing challenges of the care sector. ACA's implementation of the program became a model for other organisations looking to integrate traineeships into their recruitment processes.