Certificate III In Individual Support (Ageing)

What is Certificate III in Individual Support (Ageing)?

This qualification reflects the role of workers in the community and/or residential setting who follow an individualised plan to provide person-centred support to people who may require support due to ageing, disability or some other reason.

Work involves using discretion and judgement in relation to individual support as well as taking responsibility for own outputs. Workers have a range of factual, technical and procedural knowledge, as well as some theoretical knowledge of the concepts and practices required to provide person-centred support.

Entry Requirements

This training is open access which means it is available to any students with our without any experience in the sector.  You do not have to be in employment.

The qualification requires 120 hours of work placement to be completed. Participants may already have a suitable prospective work environment, but in most cases, Quest will make arrangements for you to complete the work placement hours.  The placement is on a volunteer basis and is for up to four weeks full time

In order to work in aged care, employers and work placement providers require that employees have no criminal record and are able to obtain a Working with Vulnerable People (WWVP) Card and a National Police Check.  On top of these requirements, now all facilities require your covid-19 vaccination certificate.

The onus is on you, the student, to arrange completion of these checks, and you should not enrol in the qualification if you are unable to pass the checks. Many providers will also require you to undertake a medical examination to ensure they are capable of conducting the manual handling activities associated with client care. Further information on the WWVP and police check will be provided to you upon enrolment.

You should be aware that the cost of these checks is not covered in the course fees and you should anticipate a payment of around $20 for the Police check for work placement.  For the WWVP there is no cost if you are seeking it for work placement or volunteering purposes.  The full WWVP card is $135 for employment purposes and although it is not required for training, if you are seeking employment you might like to discuss this with your job placement provider to see if they can provide financial support.

Pathways from this qualification

Possible job titles and roles relevant to this qualification are listed below.

• Accommodation support worker

• Assistant in nursing

• Care assistant

• Care services employees

• Field officer

• Community care worker

• Home care assistant

• In-home respite worker

• Care worker

• Residential care worker

• Disability services officer

• Support worker

Language, Literacy and Numeracy

Every student must do a Language, Literacy and Numeracy (LLN) check before we enrol you on the course. When you are caring for people you must be able to read things like medicine labels and follow written instructions. You must be able to write down information for your fellow workers too. If we think you need some support with the reading and writing, then we can help!

What this means for you is that you will need to undertake an assessment for literacy and numeracy and employability skills prior to enrolment – this could take between 30 minutes to an hour. Your assessor will then have an interview with you so that we can see what additional support you may need. It’s not a pass or fail, but if you find you do struggle, we may suggest that you seek some pre course support before you start. If you have any concerns, or are already aware that you might need some help, please talk with us.

How is the training delivered?

This program is delivered as a blended mixed mode program that includes classroom study undertaken as an intensive full time course over 20 days, independent learning, supervised workplace-based learning (up to 20 days/120 hours), and assessment.

A range of teaching and learning strategies will be used to deliver the competencies. These may include:

• practical tasks during the face to face component (for selected units);

• individual self-paced learning activities and research using learner guides;

• assessment tasks for each unit

• workplace based activities.

All units are supported with workbooks for both learning and assessment.  Students will be required to attend both the face to face component and complete the workbook tasks and submit material for assessment.

There is a compulsory workplace component of 120 hours.

Assessment

Every unit will require you to do some form of assessment. You do not get a grade like A+ or C- but you will be marked with either Competent or Not Yet Competent. You will get chances to repeat things if you get Not Yet Competent.

To be competent means that you have been assessed as having the skills, knowledge and attitude required in each unit, and have been assessed as being able to apply those skills to an industry standard in the workplace.  There are a number of assessment methods that we use and they might be different for each unit you undertake. You can expect to participate in:

• Observations – direct observation of the candidate performance by a qualified assessor or in some cases, by third parties, where the industry does not enable our assessors direct access (typically where the context is sensitive or private, such as attending to personal care needs of a patient).

• Questioning and Knowledge Assessment – A set questions assessing the student’s general knowledge and understanding of the general theory behind the unit as defined in the knowledge requirements of the unit.

• Projects or other written tasks – such as case studies, research tasks, written tasks, self reflections or other.

• Practical Demonstrations/Simulations – detailed scenarios and simulated environments with a series of activities or tasks to be undertaken, primarily undertaken in the constructed simulation environment that mirrors workplace conditions.

The following is also used for assessment:

Work placement – structured work placement occurs through employment, typically for 120 hours as defined by the qualification and/or unit requirements.  Work placement may include direct observation (where our qualified assessors are unable to access restricted work environments) or third party supervisor feedback.

Because there are links between all of the units, overall assessment decisions of competency are not made until everything is completed.  You will be told though along the way whether you have been given a satisfactory outcome on each task.  Once satisfactory outcomes have been awarded in all tasks, the decision on competency is made.

Work Placement

To achieve this qualification, you must complete at least 120 hours of work placement. It is expected that this work placement component will be completed wholly at the student’s place of employment.  If a student enrols without current employment, Quest is able to arrange placements.

Full instructions for the work placement are provided to you and your workplace supervisor, outlining the requirements, the responsibilities of all parties, the tasks to be completed, the forms and checklists to be completed by both the supervisor and yourself, and supervision and monitoring.  All work placement is required to be under direct supervision.

Workplace monitoring will generally occur twice over the 120 hours. Quest trainers will accompany you to the initial induction session and assess you on your ability to follow instructions on the following;

• Punctuality (turning up at the time instructed)

• Wearing the correct clothing (Including bringing ID badge from Quest)

• Respectful interactions with your colleagues and the residents of the facility

A second monitoring visit will occur at a later date (usually in the last week of the work placement). During this visit you will be assessed on the following tasks;

• Personal care (Supporting residents during meals)

• Knowledge of facility policies and procedures (Including WHS and infection control)

• Documentation requirements and procedures

• Communicating with the residents

In addition, Quest trainers and assessors maintain contact with supervisors to discuss progress and seek feedback.

Recognition of Prior Learning and Credit Transfer

Quest Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) policy ensures

an individual’s prior learning achieved through formal and informal training, work experience or other life experiences is appropriately recognised.  We implement a systematic process for RPL.

RPL is implemented via either of the following approaches:

Credit transfer – You hold an equivalent version or the same unit a credit transfer/exempt outcome is awarded

Assessment pathway – You provide evidence which is then reviewed and assessed by a qualified assessor against the requirements of the unit/s of competency. Evidence gathered via this pathway might include professional discussions, portfolio documentation, self-assessment or observational assessment.

The outcome of the assessment can result in the student being granted achievement of some or all of the units of competency assessed through RPL.