Community Services – a lasting career with the potential for advancement

The community services sector is an ever growing opportunity for lasting employment and creating a career path. The growth in the sector is rising and will continue heading upwards for some decades to come. One of the major factors creating this growth is the ageing population. People are living longer and the baby boomers, (that’s me too), will require more services as they age.

Coming into the sector through gaining a Certificate III in Individual Support, gives people a broad qualification which covers aged care, home and community care and disability work. This new qualification has been a great step forward and suits the sector’s needs much more than the previous qualifications, that were separated into aged care, home and community care and disability work. The new qualification allows people to move around within the sector, rather than leave to go and  do something different. The sector needs large numbers of workers and we need to keep our  people! We don’t want great people getting bored or needing a change, so that they go to work in a completely different industry. The diversity in community services employment options is huge.

Once that initial qualification has been completed, many people are very happy to stay working at that level and can move around to work in different areas if they choose.  Other people are looking for a career path and the community services sector provides lots of opportunities. If you want to continue to work in aged care or home and community care there is a certificate IV in ageing support that will help you secure that career pathway. If you want to work in the disability space, there is a Certificate IV in Disability, which is great if you are looking for more responsibility and advancement. At certificate IV level, you can branch out into community work, youth work or mental health support just to name a few. There are so many different types of community services organisations where you can gain employment.

If management is your thing, there are many qualifications that can help you up the ladder to seek a role such as a coordinator, team leader or manager. Examples are leadership and management qualifications or a diploma in community services.

Many people use the qualifications they have gained as a way of entering university. Lots go on to do nursing, social work or other community services degrees.

So what I’m trying to say is that if you are a person who likes people or who likes to feel good about supporting others, then community services might be right up your alley. It’s unlikely your job will be replaced by automation, so you just might find your niche in a sector that needs good people to fill those jobs!