Millenials will find job security and growth in aged care, says manager
Young people are being called on to tackle a looming crisis in the aged care sector as it potentially faces a dire shortage of workers in the next three decades.
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Young people are being called on to tackle a looming crisis in the aged care sector as it potentially faces a dire shortage of workers in the next three decades.
Government figures indicate there are 360,000 people employed in the sector currently and by 2050 that will need to increase to about one million employees.
James Flood, 26, is an aged care facility manager with independent Christian charity HammondCare.
A liberal arts graduate and former part-time piano teacher, the Parramatta resident now manages three cottages in Hammondville for people living with dementia.
Having moved from policy development to frontline work, Mr Flood said there was a range of pathways for millenials — but aged care providers need to provide engaging entry-level opportunities.
He believes the greatest barrier preventing millenials from entering the sector is the stigma around aged care.
“People have a view in mind of maybe what they’ve seen on TV or they’ve heard horror stories in the media and so I think people don’t really understand what aged care is,” Mr Flood said.
“Aged care organisations need to do their best to tell positive stories. At the ground level there’s so much good going on helping society’s most vulnerable.”
As Baby Boomers increasingly move into aged care facilities, demand is growing and young people with backgrounds in areas as diverse as music, speech pathology, architecture, business, media and communications and accounting should consider aged care as a career, he said.
“There ought to be competition for the most talented young people to engage them in the aged care sector, especially because aged care can offer things that few industries can,” Mr Flood said.
“It can offer long term secure work — it’s not going away, it’s not going to be replaced by robots. It can offer tremendous growth opportunities.”
Above all, it is “work with purpose” and “heart”.
“These are some of society’s most vulnerable people and sure, it doesn’t look as flashy on paper as NGO work with asylum seekers or refugees, but I could tell you that there’s so many older people in really desperate situations who need good care at the end of their lives,” he said.
Mr Flood will speak about making dementia care a career of choice for millenials and non-clinicians at the International Dementia Conference on Thursday and Friday at The Hilton in Sydney.