Job Profiles

Personal Care Assistant – Aged Care

elderly person's hands close up
A Personal Care Assistant working in Aged Care provides residents with social and emotion support.

Need a genuine passion for helping others.


Role Description:

  • A Personal Care Assistant working in Aged Care provides residents with social and emotion support. They 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.

    Personal Care Assistants working in Aged Care are responsible for writing progress notes.

Where you might work:

  • Your workplace could be a Residential Aged Care Facility or a person’s home. You might also take a client out from their home to go grocery shopping or for appointment such as seeing a doctor or physiotherapist.

Personal attributes:

  • You need a genuine passion for helping others and making a difference to the quality of life of older people. You need a caring manner, patience, good communication skills and the ability to think on your feet. You need to be able to work with people from diverse backgrounds.

Salary:

  • Middle of the range starting salary in Australia: $39,000
    (Reference: National Centre for Vocational Education Research, 2018.)

Employment rates:

  • 64,000 job openings over 5 years in Australia (that’s about 12,800 a year)
    (Reference: ABS Labour Force Survey, 2018.)

Industry growth:

  • Personal Care Assistants grew moderately over the past 5 years and is expected to grow strongly over the next 5 years: from 97,900 in 2018 to 109,300 by 2023.
    (Reference: ABS Labour Force Survey, 2018.)

Aged Care Worker Occupation Profile Videos:


Personal support worker

Career Pathway - Personal Care and Disability Support

People who provide personal care and disability support may enjoy flexible working conditions and a broad variety of tasks.
Jaslyn - Personal Support Worker

Personal Story - Personal Support Worker

I chose this field of work because I want to make a difference in people’s lives. I want to promote their independence in both their home & within their local community.