Getting started in a career in aged care in Australia.

Hi,
     After my daughter started school, I decided that it was time to look around for a new career.
In Australia there are increasing  opportunities in aged care. This is  because the percentage of over 70's in the population is increasing.  The  "baby-boomers" born in the  the immediate post-war period 1945-1955 are now reaching retirement age.

I started out by looking around for a training provider to get an initial qualification in aged care. I found that Australasian-Lawrence Aged Care college was well suited to my needs.  They were based near my home  and had a flexible schedule that allowed me to finish the course quickly.  After completing the theory side of the course it was necessary to find a practical placement. This was a challenge but after ringing about 30 different aged care facilities I eventually found one willing to supervise me. My 80 hour unpaid traineeship was at Sambell Lodge in Clifton Hill they were friendly and helpful and gave me a great reference.  I completed my Certificate 3 in aged care in about 4 months in all.                                                          

After completing my studies.  I started looking for work. I searched online  at www.seek.com.au and also sent my resume to several agencies. Before too long I found some casual work.
This work involved visiting old folks to assist them in their home and sometimes assisting them with shopping and outings. At first, it was quite a challenge at learning to find my way around to different suburbs with the help of the GPS on my phone. After a while I got used to it.  I found that working with clients in their homes suited me better than working in a nursing home sector.

After around 6 months working with agencies as  a casual I decided to go in to business for myself as an independent carer.  I found that clients were happy to hire me directly based on my Certificate and references.  I found that it was possible to find regular age care clients through specialized websites like Find a carer and also by advertising on the notice boards of my local public library. By having my own business I found that I was  happier because I could choose the clients who were not so difficult. The clients are happy because they avoid the high fees charged by the agencies.
                                                               

Working in aged care can be challenging and may not suit everyone but there are certainly opportunities there to make a start working in Aged Care in Australia. After working in aged care for less than 12 months I had saved enough to buy a brand new car!

Thanks for reading, Please feel free to leave a comment or query.

Regards,
Joy

To declutter and make some quick cash sell some stuff online!

“Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need - a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing... ”

 Jerome K. Jerome (May 2, 1859 – June 14, 1927) was an English author, best known for the humorous travelogue Three Men in a Boat.

        Recently we watched an interesting  documentary called  "My stuff "   The idea was to put all your stuff into a storage, and bring back only one item per day. Although we are not ready for such radical decluttering methods, watching the movie convinced us that it was time to make some quick cash by selling some of our unwanted stuff.

Click here to see our video about selling stuff.

In the past we have tried having garage sales and also sold things on ebay and found it profitable but a bit time consuming.

This time we decided to try listing our stuff on our towns community buy and sell page on facebook:

itemsforsaleNewmanWesternAustralia

We posted some photos of our stuff including some hand bags, china and other odds and ends. 

                                    Sold in 30 minutes!
                                  

Sold same day!

We were surprised how quickly the things were snapped up. Not only did we make some cash but we also met some friendly neighbours.  

       

Life in a mining town in the West Australian outback.

Hi,
     I am Joyce, I am currently living here with my family  in the mining town of Newman in the West Australian outback. My interests are family, travel, saving, investments, blogging and youtubing.

Newman has a population of around 5000 and is a comfortable place to live. The town has all the necessary facilities including excellent schools, churchs,  hospital, supermarket, library, hotels and sporting/recreational centres. Newman is a very multicultural community with residents from all over the world.

Here is a panoramic view of the town

We have found that the cost of living here for us is actually a lot less than in the city. Salaries are higher, there are some tax benefits and accomodation is often heavily subsidised by the employers.

Newman is a mining town and just outside of town is the Mt Whaleback mine which is one of the largest iron ore mines in the world, it is owned by BHP.

We recently toured the Mt Whaleback mine

 Some miners are employed on a fly in fly out basis and Newman has daily direct flights to Perth.
We have decided to invest some of the money we earn here in shares in BHP.

Although we are far from the distractions, excitement and bright lights of the city we are very happy to stay here for a while living the simple life.