Aged-care worker
Provide personal care, social support and basic clinical assistance to older Australians in home, community and residential settings.
Registration: NDIS Worker Screening (community settings) and aged-care worker screening
Salary
Cited figures only: median full-time weekly earnings for the ANZSCO unit group Aged and Disabled Carers (4231) from Your Career (Jobs and Skills Australia), and where available the QILT graduate starting salary for the matching study area.
| Figure | AUD | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Median full-time weekly earnings | $1564 | Your Career (2026-09-23) |
Jobs, demand and who does this work
Figures for the ANZSCO occupation Aged and Disabled Carer (423111), the closest official match for aged-care worker, from Your Career (Jobs and Skills Australia data, sourced 2026-09-23).
- People employed
- 364,700
- Future demand
- Very strong
- Work full-time
- 40%
- Average full-time hours
- 43 a week
- Women
- 76%
- Median age
- 42
Where the jobs are (share of workers)
| NSW | 29.7% |
| VIC | 23% |
| QLD | 22% |
| WA | 11.2% |
| SA | 9.3% |
| TAS | 2.8% |
| ACT | 1% |
| NT | 1% |
Highest qualification held by workers
| Postgraduate qualification | 5.3% |
| Bachelor degree | 13.4% |
| Diploma or advanced diploma | 15% |
| Certificate I-IV | 36.6% |
| Year 12 | 12.8% |
| Below Year 12 | 10.2% |
What an aged-care worker actually does
Aged-care workers split between residential aged-care facilities and in-home Home Care Package work. A residential shift opens with handover from the off-going team, then a flat-out morning of personal care: showers, dressing, continence support, breakfast assistance and medication prompts. Mid-morning is recreation activities, family visits and document updates in the care system. Lunch service, then afternoon care rounds, then evening showers and settle. Most facility shifts are 8 or 10 hours and rotate across day, evening and night, with night shifts focused on continence checks and answering call bells. Community workers drive a route of 6 to 10 short visits, often 20 to 45 minutes each, supporting people to keep living at home. The work is physically and emotionally heavy: clients you build relationships with will die, and casualisation of the workforce means shift patterns can be unpredictable.
Typical tasks
- Support clients with personal hygiene and mobility.
- Assist with meals, medication prompts and household tasks.
- Document changes in condition and report to clinicians.
Skills you'll use
- Personal care including showering, dressing and toileting
- Manual handling and safe transfers (Sara Stedy, slings, hoists)
- Medication prompts and recording
- Dementia-aware communication and behaviour support
- Wound observation and skin-integrity checks
- Documentation in aged-care management software
- Spotting early signs of deterioration to escalate to RNs
- Cultural respect for clients from diverse backgrounds
How to become one
- 1Finish Year 10 (minimum) or Year 12 with general literacy
- 2Complete a Certificate III in Individual Support (Ageing) (CHC33021) at TAFE or a private RTO
- 3Pass the required 120 hours of supervised work placement
- 4Obtain a National Police Check and the NDIS Worker Screening Check (for community work)
- 5Complete the mandatory aged-care worker screening required by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission
- 6Apply for entry-level roles in residential aged care or home care
- 7Consider stepping up to Certificate IV in Ageing Support or Diploma of Nursing for more clinical scope
Where you can work
- Residential aged-care facilities (for-profit and not-for-profit)
- Home Care Package providers
- Commonwealth Home Support Programme services
- Hospitals as assistants in nursing
- Multicultural and Aboriginal-specific aged-care services
- Dementia-specific units and memory-support facilities
- Retirement villages and independent-living complexes
Career progression
Typical stages and roles. Years of experience are a rough guide; pay at each stage depends on the employer, award or agreement.
- Entry-level carer0-1 yearsTypical roles: Personal-care worker, Home-care worker, Assistant in nursing (AIN)
- Experienced carer2-5 yearsTypical roles: Senior personal-care worker, Lifestyle assistant, Lead carer
- Team leader or coordinator5+ yearsTypical roles: Team leader, Care coordinator, Trainer assessor
Is this for you?
You might love this if
- You like spending time with older people and hearing their stories
- You're physically fit enough to lift and assist for an 8 to 10-hour shift
- You're comfortable with bodily fluids and end-of-life care
- You can take a person-first approach with dementia behaviours
- You're reliable - rosters depend on people turning up
This might not suit you if
- You can't handle bodily fluids, wounds or smells
- You want a desk-based or screen-based job
- You can't cope with grief when long-term residents die
- You want a job with guaranteed weekday daytime shifts
Ways in
Uni and TAFE routes for aged-care worker. We only list pathways that actually lead to this occupation.
University
Bachelor degrees that lead to this career.
No direct undergraduate pathway. Consider postgraduate study after a related bachelor degree.
TAFE / VET
Nationally accredited Certificate and Diploma qualifications.
Sources
ExamExplained does not publish predictive salary figures. For current Australian earnings data check Your Career (yourcareer.gov.au) directly. Career classifications follow the ABS ANZSCO 2022 release.