workforce
positions in aged care and community services – is helping emerging leaders break into their first management role and progress with the same company.
“ That’ s the stuff that gets me excited,” Sutherland says.“ I can see how an individual is going to add value to their employer and also feel fulfilled in their own journey.”
The director of 3D Recruit said emerging generations bring a fresh injection of ideas and a creative energy to push boundaries in a healthy way.
“ As Henry Ford said,‘ If you always do what you’ ve always done, you’ ll always get what you’ ve always got’. We can’ t afford to stay the same. We need to break free from the restrictive mindset of‘ we’ ve always done it this way’ and we need to explore new possibilities, workforce structures and career pathways that better align with new, emerging models of care.”
This, coupled with the fact the majority of existing leaders in the sector will retire soon, is great news for aspiring young leaders who are hungry for opportunities, variety and to work in an industry that has a strong sense of purpose, Sutherland says.
“ It’ s fair to say that the aged care industry as a career choice is not perceived as sexy or glam. It’ s true. It’ s more real than that. Who wants sexy and glam when instead you can make a very real impact and make a very real difference?
“ Also, with so much work to do in our ever-evolving industry, it provides plentiful opportunities for career progression and unique leadership opportunities.”
SEAN ROONEY: LASA CHIEF EXECUTIVE
ACI: So many within this sector have highlighted that aged care needs to attract young workers and might also need a bit of rebranding. What are some of the commonly held notions about the industry that you’ re hoping to help dispel? SR: If you look at some of the formal reporting done by the government and others when they look at the aged care workforce, they say the current workforce has high levels of satisfaction, a diversity in the backgrounds of the people involved in the industry, diversity in their skill sets and professional disciplines, and an absolute passion that’ s fundamental to the work that they do – an absolute passion for meeting the needs of older Australians. And so, there’ s a number of things that we know inside the tent that are hallmarks of our industry, but regrettably that’ s not well understood outside of our industry.
Our role in the NEXT GEN Initiative is to showcase not only to our own industry, but to the next generation of workers, that this is an industry of opportunity, that it can build successful, rewarding careers over a lifetime, and that you can come to it from any number of different disciplines. Whether it’ s clinical, whether it’ s information technology, whether it’ s robotics or horticulture, there are so many different opportunities that would come up if people started to see our industry as a career choice.
What are some of the other aspects of aged care that you hope more people take note of or know more about? Our role is to care for some of the frailest and most vulnerable in the community. That’ s a responsibility we don’ t take lightly, and it’ s a task that we take to with absolute passion.
Those in the industry know that fundamental to that is having people with the right temperament, and then having those people qualified, skilled and experienced.
And that’ s what we’ re trying to say to the wider community. Our industry is all about care, and if you care for others and you want to see yourself in a profession that is making a big difference in the lives of older people and the lives of their families and communities, then this is an industry that will welcome you.
As part of NEXT GEN, LASA is promoting a dozen young leaders in the sector. What do these professionals represent? These are young people that are either working directly in our industry – in residential care, home care and seniors housing – or providing professional services in products and support into our industry. And this is a great opportunity to showcase to young Australians that this is a progressive, go-forward, opportunity-rich industry that is going to continue to grow in terms of scale and importance to our community.
Not only that, getting these experiences, qualifications and that exposure to our industry nationally, we know that there is a demand for these types of services internationally, and the Team Australia approach to bringing the best of what we know here and taking it to the world will create further opportunity.
What feedback have you received from the young leaders about NEXT GEN as an initiative or about the way aged care is viewed at the moment? It’ s been overwhelmingly positive, and I think what’ s actually struck us as we’ ve gone out with this initiative in its early formation stages, is that there wasn’ t one provider organisation in aged care that wasn’ t saying this was a good idea and any number of organisations that are providing services and support to our industry were all lining up to get involved.
And beyond the organisations, the individuals that were selfselecting to say,“ Well, either someone’ s nominated me or I’ ll put my hand up because I’ m passionate about what I do and I’ m passionate about how what I do makes a difference in the lives of older Australians. I want to tell that story because I want other people to understand the opportunity here.”
What else will be going into the NEXT GEN initiative, and what does the future hold? NEXT GEN was born out of conversations with young leaders. We invited a small number of young leaders to attend our national conference last year, and out of that came,‘ Where is the voice of young people? Where are the voices of young leaders?’
In response to that, we created NEXT GEN. Now, the initiative is made up of component parts, where we’ ll identify across each of the states who we think are representatives of the next generation in the industry. We’ ll then convene forums. The one in WA coming up shortly is the first example of that, where we have a young leader paired with a senior leader in the industry talking to a particular issue and looking at that from the established world view versus the young leader perspectives, and having conversations around that with a view then to use those conversations as a way to showcase the industry, but also, importantly, to start getting intergenerational mentor / mentee relationships happening.
So then what we look to do is build on those forums in each of the different state locations, designing a program that meets the needs of the providers and the young professionals in order to fully develop the skills and career pathways, and then tell those stories to the wider community. So you’ d see programs such as the Young Leaders Professional Development Program. You’ d see a formal mentoring program and any other things that might come up through the course of those conversations and emerge as outcomes desired from the forums. ■
32 agedcareinsite. com. au