From unpaid practical training that limits the opportunity to participate to a failure to recognise overseas qualifications, what are the barriers in the way of developing our care sector workforces? Beyond the urgent need to pay those who work in care more, Andrea Christie-David has some ideas.
People who choose the education, caring and human services professions are drawn to a career where they contribute to the lives of others and make a difference to society.
So why, then, do we make their path to and continued progress in these essential careers so challenging?
We know that increasing pay across care sectors is necessary and well overdue to not only reward and demonstrate the value of existing workers, but also to attract more in the future.
But with economic uncertainty and pressure on the government to manage spending, it was always going to be challenging for the Government to offer pay rises across the board. The wage increase to certain parts of the aged care workforce announced in last week’s Budget is welcome, however we know early childhood sector is just as deserving, and we keenly await a similar boost in the near term to recognise the importance of this work.
We also welcomed the announced funding to support professional development for early childhood services and backfilling costs for staff completing training.
But many in this sector were left wondering where these backfilling educators and teachers would miraculously come from, given identified skill shortages here.
Just as we’re wondering where much-needed nurses will come from.
A recent McKinsey article looked at attrition in the nursing profession in the US over a two-year period, which found that 40 per cent of nurses were considering leaving the profession, an increase from 22 percent two years prior. Data produced by the Commonwealth Department of Education states that Australian University offers in 2021 were at their lowest level since 2011. Simple arithmetic would tell you that if attrition in these professions is increasing and graduates are decreasing, workforce shortages will become untenable unless we make systemic changes to increase the number of students completing their qualifications.
With a challenging fiscal landscape in mind, it is crucial that we look at a wide range of ways to make these career paths more attractive, ways that can boost these workforces without reducing the quality of the services we already have.
Below are some immediate ideas.
Remunerate practical training
Last week’s 7.30 report on university students who were living in poverty, coupled with my recent encounter with an occupational therapy student who said she wouldn’t have been able to complete her practical training if she didn’t live with her parents, brought home to me just how difficult we are making it for students who choose these in-demand professions to complete their degrees.
Unlike apprenticeships, these highly feminised workforces are often required to complete unpaid placements for weeks on end, then return to their studies, all while finding a way to avoid poverty, which will certainly not be aided by the insufficient $20 a week increase to JobSeeker.
I, myself, was fortunate to complete my practical legal training as part of my paid employment, which is recognised and welcomed in the professional services industry. Not only does the model facilitate entry into a graduate role, but it also meets employers’ needs by creating a pipeline of graduates into paid employment, much like the apprenticeship model. Yet for many feminised workforces such as teachers, therapists and nurses, we expect students to find unpaid work with someone other than their employer, for significant periods of time, before they can meet the criteria for their qualifications.
Where paid work placements do exist in these industries, these are often subject to the vocational institution’s own requirements, or a state or territory’s governance, and is not consistent across the country.
This regime of lengthy periods of unpaid work wreaks of privilege and further excludes those who are already in vulnerable or complex circumstances. Individuals who have supportive home environments or have banked up savings can set themselves up in a way that facilitates academic achievement. But for those battling domestic violence, struggling to put food on the table, or parenting a child with disability, academic success, or even completing qualifications, is often only a dream. Enabling remunerated practical training in these sectors not only creates an equal playing field and increases the chances of course completion, but it also solves immediate workforce shortages.
Sadly, the reintroduction of reduced student visa working hours in the budget will not help these sectors, particularly if those limited hours cannot be counted toward course requirements. Increased hours for student visas should have been retained until workforce shortages are addressed, which should then be coupled with industry reform to reward paid practical experience.
Recognise prior experience
Recognition of prior practical learning in the early childhood space has been almost impossible to achieve over the years.
However, more recently, innovation and sensible approaches are starting to rear their head with fast-tracked courses being introduced to enable educators with vocational qualifications to achieve teacher status sooner. But in many institutions, there are attitudes and approaches that still prevent students with solid and relevant work experience from having their skills recognised.
I have a team member completing an early childhood teaching degree, who also holds a diploma qualification, and was a director of a 120-place long day care centre for many years but is still required to complete four sets of practical placements. She was essentially responsible for 120 children at any given time, up to 50 staff, including teachers, and yet she is required to go through weeks of unpaid practical training to complete her degree.
This is just one of many examples that I come across in both education and allied health, with depths of relevant experience ignored for the sake of process and bureaucracy. If our educational institutions took a practical approach to recognising the knowledge and skill students bring from their diverse backgrounds, we would again see higher completion rates and increased numbers of graduates contributing to these important areas of society sooner.
Mutually recognise overseas qualifications
Just last week I met a speech pathologist from South Africa (a native English speaker) who took two years to have her English skills recognised by the governing body in Australia. Need I say more about how ludicrous this sounds?! Well, I will.
Why we are creating further unnecessary barriers for migrants to bring their overseas experience to Australia, in professions where we have major shortages, makes no sense.
The need to maintain quality and parity is not in dispute, but different accents or nuances in the way English is spoken only contribute to the diversity of these professions and should not be an obstacle. This diversity enhances patient outcomes when different perspectives and approaches are incorporated into our practices.
Australia has slipped in its ranks as a sought-after destination for highly qualified migrants, and the Government’s announcement into an overhaul of the migration system is welcome. However, having spent many years acting for skilled migrants in Australia’s heydays of the early 2000’s, I know that the qualification recognition scheme must also be reviewed alongside migration legislation. The Government must influence skills recognition bodies to align their entry requirements with employer expectations to meet Australia’s economic and productivity needs well into the future.
Retain and develop
With the Treasurer calling out the need to find pathways to economic participation for more members of our community, we need to address these barriers to attracting and retaining people to these sectors.
Our systems and practices must be adaptable to the needs of these workforces, without simply expecting these rare gems in our community to make more sacrifices in their own lives to continue to meet the needs of others.