Today I joined graduates at Aged and Community Services Tasmania’s (ACST) Graduate Nurse Transition to Practice graduation ceremony to announce a $150,000 grant to support development of an online Workforce Hub to support employment growth in the sector.
The Graduate Nurse Transition to Practice Program is key to the successful recruitment of nurses into the aged services sector.
All graduating nurses need to be part of a transition to practice program as they commence employment as a graduate nurse.
ACST is the second largest deliverer of this program after the Department of Health and Human Services.
This program puts the sector on the front foot in recruiting new and younger workers, helping it replenish and rejuvenate the workforce.
The aged services sector needs to grow, up-skill and re-skill its workforce.
To do this the sector needs to maximise the opportunity to recruit and develop interested workers, through providing consistent information and opportunities to connect potential employees, current employees, job seeker agencies, training providers, and employers.
The online Workforce Hub will include information on pathways to employment, ongoing professional development, and career pathways.
The Hub, and the work that ACST will undertake, are important steps in the training and workforce development system more broadly.
ACST will ensure the development of the platform enables its use or replication by other sector organisations with comparable workforce development needs and capability.
They will make the platform accessible to such organisations and share knowledge, experience and learnings in the use of sector specific resources and materials on the platform.