You may have been thinking about a career move, and people focused like working as a carer has appealed to you. Or perhaps you’ve seen ads for the training, or heard news stories about the desperate need for disability workers. So now you’re considering the idea of a career change into the disability industry. But before you jump you want to know if there’s actually work available. You want to know that there are disability support worker jobs on offer.
The good news is yes – there are plenty of roles on offer in the disability industry. Currently in Australia (that’s mid-2024), there are almost twice as many disability support worker jobs available as there are for carpenters, more than double the number of roles available for plumbers, and around the same number as accountants.
But is it going to stay that way? How hard is it to get work, and where can I find it? Is this a wise career move? Let’s take a moment to look at whether moving into disability support is a good idea.
Key Takeaways
- Although the figures fluctuate daily, there are around 7000 disability support worker jobs currently available. This number is expected to climb in future, as one of the fastest-growing industries in Australia.
- While applying directly is the most common way to secure a disability support role, training also presents other opportunities to land a job in the industry.
- The availability of work shouldn’t be the reason for seeking out a disability support worker role. But for those looking to make a difference, there are plenty of opportunities to do so.
The easy answer is yes. Disability support workers are not only highly in demand, but the demand is steadily increasing – and most experts are saying that the industry is only going to continue getting stronger. In fact, Jobs and Skills Australia reports that the Health Care and Social Assistance industry is expected to see the strongest growth in the next five years of any industry – with an anticipated 257,300 new jobs expected in the next five years. That’s more than double the expected growth of any other industry.
Specifically, community and personal service workers are expected to be the type of occupation with the third highest growth.
In fact, according to a recent report for the NDIS, the care and support sector is one of Australia’s largest and fastest growing sectors. Seek.com backs this up, showing an expected job growth in disability support worker jobs of 28% over the next five years. For reference, compare this with 8.6% growth for plumbers, and 9.2% for accountants.
Practically speaking, all this basically tells us that in terms of ongoing work opportunities, the disability industry is a very safe bet.
How many disability support worker jobs are out there?
The exact figures of what disability support roles are available fluctuate daily, but at the time of writing, it’s estimated (by seek.com) there are somewhere in the area of 7,000 disability support worker jobs on offer in Australia (6,861 to be really precise). To give some perspective, we can compare this to the current number of job opportunities in other major industries.
- Nurse – 11,818
- Teacher – 10,385
- Mechanic – 8,055
- Disability Support Worker – 6,861
- Accountant – 6,673
- Carpenter – 4,344
- Plumber – 3,352
- Web Developer – 1,341
Although it’s not quite in the same league as teachers or nurses, that puts disability support workers on par with accountants in terms of current job vacancies, and well above many major industries. And for reference, its expected job growth in the next five years (28%) is the strongest of any on that list – with only “Web Developer” coming anywhere near (27%, with the next highest being nurses at 13.9%).
That means disability support work is already ranking with the heavyweights in terms of number of jobs on the table, and it’s only going to get stronger.
How do you find disability support worker jobs?
In many ways, this is the easy part, as recruitment and job-seeker websites have many disability support worker jobs on offer. You’re literally spoiled for choice in terms of where to apply.
Of course, just applying for the job is one thing. Getting an interview and landing the position can be rather more complicated than that, and there are many excellent employees out there who still struggle to land a job. Of course, there’s plenty of help out there online as to how to craft an excellent resume or how to do well in an interview. But for disability support jobs, there are also a couple of other options available for people who struggle with interviews.
Most disability support workers now do some sort of training for their position – such as a Certificate III in Individual Support (Disability), or a Certificate IV in Disability Support. In addition to providing you with the skills and knowledge for your role, both these courses have a practical placement where you need to spend several weeks working in the disability industry alongside real-life support workers. This gives you an excellent chance to show a potential employer what you’re capable of without worrying about the job application process. And with the high demand in the industry, it’s not unheard of for students to be offered a job during their placement – meaning they finish their course with work already lined up.
Also… many training colleges now have employers that visit during course, to recruit potential staff. So even doing your training for a disability support role can be an opportunity to land a role.
Statistically speaking – yes, it most definitely will. In fact, a 2023 report by Jobs and Skills Australia ranked the Certificate III in Individual Support (the most common qualification for disability support workers) as having the highest rate of improvement to someone’s chances of employment of any VET course in Australia – increasing your odds of employment by a whopping 34.51% – more than a third.
Now, while disability support isn’t the sort of job that you’d want to do just for the sake of finding work and paying the bills, it’s certainly encouraging to know that you’re definitely not hurting your career prospects by moving into the disability industry.
Is moving into disability support a smart move?
There are two sides to that question, both of which you need to weigh up before considering a move into professional disability support.
First is whether it’s a good strategic move for you – whether there’s work available, whether the industry is growing or in decline, whether you’d earn enough to pay the bills, and how you get started in the industry. And as we’ve seen, it’s a career with plenty of opportunities on offer on a course for strong growth in the future – in fact, it’d be hard to find much stronger.
The second question is whether you’d be a good fit for the role. To answer this you need to consider questions like what the role actually involves from day to day, and whether your gifts and skills are well suited to the job.
Probably the main question you want to start with is “Why do I want to do this role?”. Very few support workers currently in the industry made the move because of money or the availability of work. Some of the common reasons people move into disability support work include:
- Having skills that are well-suited to the job
- Wanting to help people
- Having friends or relatives living with disability
- Having their own lived experience of disability
What this shows is that disability support is a role for people who want to make a difference – to improve the welfare of the people around them. Yes the work is there, and the pay is solid, but ultimately if you’re not there to help people, you’ll probably find – sooner or later – that this isn’t the career for you.
But if you are the sort of person who wants to make an impact on the lives of others, it’s certainly nice to know that you’re very much in demand!