Aged care scholarships

There is a shortage in the Illawarra of workers in aged care and, as a community, we need to try and address this issue. As a community we need to also ensure we provide assistance to a wide range of people, in this case, to people of refugee background. 

The RC (Rotary Club) of Dapto will provide two scholarships for students to undertake the Certificate III in Individual Support (Aged Care) at TAFE NSW-Shellharbour Campus. The project  involves the RC of Dapto in partnership with Marco Polo, and SCARF (Strategic Community Assistance to Refugee Families). The focus of the scholarship will be to provide financial help as well as mentoring and tutorial advice. Each scholarship is worth $2000 which can be used for a variety of assistance such as childcare, fees, equipment or transport. The intention is to provide assistance to a person to take up study and employment, to give them a sense of belonging and inclusion and empower them in our community as well as to address, in a small measure, the need for more aged-care workers in our community. 

 

Participants will be identified through a selection process during January. The successful participants will enrol in the Certificate III in Individual Support (Aged Care) in TAFE NSW – Illawarra Institute to begin study in February. The RC of Dapto and Marco Polo will provide the financial support, SCARF tutorial support. The RC of Dapto will also provide mentoring as participants work through the course. Clinical placement will be provided by Marco Polo. It is hoped that on conclusion of the course, the participants will be successful in gaining employment at Marco Polo. This is a pilot program and will be evaluated to establish its effectiveness in meeting the needs of participants and the ability to provide committed, well trained employees for the aged care industry.