Home Care Worker

Employees in our Home Care Teams will need to have:

A National Police Check:

• You can obtain this prior to starting and do not need to have it when you apply for a job.
• You can provide your own if you have one that is under 3 months old. If it is over 3 months, you will need to obtain a new one at your own cost.
• You can obtain a police check from companies such as Fit 2 Work, Australia Post, or National Criminal Check.
• The cost is approximately $35-$45.

First Aid Certificate:

• You can obtain this prior to starting and do not need to have it when you apply for a job.
• You will need have or obtain a First Aid Certificate that is current. First Aid certificates expire after 3 years.
• The certificate should be for course code HLTAID011 and the course should be completed in person. Some First Aid Training include CPR
• Ensure the course company has the National Recognised Training Logo

CPR Certificate:

• You will need have or obtain a CPR that is current. CPR Certificates expire after 12 months (1 year).
• You can obtain this prior to starting and do not need to have it when you apply for a job.
• The certificate should be for course code HLTAID011 or HLTAID009 and the course should be completed in person. Some First Aid Trainings include CPR (while the First Aid last for 3 years, the CRP is still only valid for 1 year).
• Ensure the course company has the National Recognised Training Logo.

Car, Driving Licence, and Comprehensive Insurance

Whether working as a Qualified Care Worker, or an Unqualified Care Worker, you will need a car and a driver licence. This is to drive between clients' homes, or to pick up groceries or other shopping items for the client.

If you are a Qualified Care Worker, you may need to drive your clients to appointments, to do shopping, or for general outings. You will need to have Comprehensive Car Insurance

A Personal Care Worker can go by many names, but they all mean the same thing. Personal Care Worker is used more in Aged Care, and Support Worker is used more in Disability Services.

• Care reflects providing services to someone to enable them to undertake in daily tasks
• Support is about empowering them to be more independent and live a fuller life with integrated strategies in place

Personal Care Workers assist clients with the activities of daily living including communicating, eating, showering, dressing, toileting and grooming. Other duties can include monitoring medications, making beds, tidying rooms, and cleaning tasks.

Other names for a Personal Care Worker (PCW) include:

• Personal Care Assistant (PCA)
• Personal Carer
• Care Companion
• Home Carer
• Home Care Assistant
• In Home Service Assistant
• Assistant In Nursing (AIN)

Work life balance

Our home care team operates between the hours of 8am and 5pm, Monday to Friday. You can let us know the days you want to work, and how many hours per day, and we can roster your shifts to suit where possible.

Home care work is a great opportunity for those managing parenting and caring responsibilities, studies, or looking for a greater work life balance.

Development Opportunities

Our Home Care Team is structured to have Care Workers (also called In Home Service Assistants), Senior Care Workers, Client Advisors, Workforce Coordinators, Senior Workforce Coordinators and Regional Operation Team Leaders – offering many opportunities to progress your career.

We have many opportunities in our Support Office such as Sales, Learning, and Recruitment that would benefit from firsthand experience as a front line worker.

Being a multi-service organisation, you could also move into our Residential Aged Care Homes, Respite Centres or Retirement Villages.

Working as a Care Worker is a great first step towards becoming an Enrolled Nurse or Registered Nurse.

At Benetas, we will support you to move with internal employment opportunities advertised internally only, new shift patterns offered to our internal staff first, and programs such as our Annual Scholarship program to financially support your studies, along with paid study leave.

Be recognised and rewarded

At Benetas we celebrate our staff and recognise their value. We regularly celebrate within the smaller teams and residential homes, but also across the organisation for Nursing Day, Aged Care Week, Volunteer Week, and for our bi-annual Employee Gala to name a few.

You will work under an Enterprise Agreement with:

• Confirmed pay rates, with increases for qualifications and experience
• Paid travel allowance
• Paid kilometre allowance of 92c per km for travel between clients homes in your own vehicle
• A commitment to annual pay increases
• Paid annual leave and sick leave

As a not for profit organisation, we are able to offer a higher amount of Salary Packaging through our provider, Smart Salary. Put simply, salary packaging means you can reduce the amount of tax that you have to pay, giving you more money in your pocket.

Home Care (also called Community, Health and Care)

Our Community, Health and Care service works across Victoria to provide care and support to older Victorians within their homes.

You will travel between clients homes in the community, and may see 2-4 clients per day depending on the need and distance.

Working as a Care Worker in our Home Care service is often called being an In Home Service Assistant.

Residential Aged Care Home

Our Residential Aged Care Homes are facilities that provide 24/7 care and nursing assistance to older Victorians that live there. Some homes have 40 residents living within the home, to larger homes with over 100 residents. Each resident has their own room, and some of our homes have ‘apartments’ with separate living areas and meals facilities within.

Staff in our residential aged care homes work in shifts (morning shift; afternoon shift; night shift), across 7 days of the week. Staff work together, and there are Personal Care Workers, Enrolled Nurses, and Registered Nurses all on different shifts.

You will work at one location for your shift.  

Our Residential Aged Care Homes are also referred to as Nursing Homes, Aging Homes, or Aged Care Homes.

The Government is offering free TAFE certificates in Individual Support / Ageing Support. You can find more information here. Free online short courses are also available through government funded universities, on topics such as Person Centred Care, The Aged Care Quality Standards, and the Australian Aged Care System. More information can be found here.

Some other options include Traineeships, or doing your placement hours for your course with an aged care company.

If you are currently studying nursing, you can also work as a Care Worker while you study.

To work as a Personal Care Worker in the Home Care team, you do not need to have a qualification / certificate.

If you would like to undertake Qualified Care Worker duties, you will need at minimum a Certificate III in Individual Support or similar.

Similar qualifications include:

• Certificate IV in Individual Support
• Certificate IV in Disability Services
• Certificate IV in Ageing Support

If you are studying Nursing and have completed 8 units, and your first year placement, you can work as a Personal Care Worker.

If you do not have a qualification, you can still work as an Unqualified Care Worker.