Commissioners Information Bulletin 001
Issued: 6 January 1998

Careskills Traineeship

There are two courses on the National Register for Certificate III in Care Support Services.

One is a traineeship and one offers the qualification to existing employees.

(a) Traineeship

Certificate III in Care Support Services Traineeship
This course is a twelve month full time traineeship or a part time traineeship of not more than 24 months.

There are two streams, Stream A (Personal Assistant) targets personal care assistants working with people with are relatively independent, and Stream B (Nurse Assistant) which targets Assistants In Nursing who work with people who are dependent.

The traineeship is only available to new employees or employees who have been employed full time less than three months or part time less than twelve months.

The traineeship is a mixture of off the job learning and on the job learning. The trainee received a training wage which is slightly less than an award wage for assistants in nursing. This is in recognition that training is received, training time is paid for and the trainee exits the traineeship with a recog nised qualification.

Traineeship funding is available for those employers who employ trainees.

(b) Existing Employees

Certificate III in Care Support Services (Nurse Assistant) Recognition Course
This course is specifically targeted to existing employees. An existing employee is someone who has been employed full time for three months or more, or part time for 12 months and over.

This program is based on the traineeship curricula, however the modules have been grouped into six learning packages which are delivered as a mixture of off the job, (approximately three hours per week) on the job learning activities and self directed learning. On completion of the six learning packages the assistant in nursing receives the qualification.

Traineeship funding is not available for existing employees, although funding for training may be accessed through the Contracted Training Provision program where appropriate.

Part time traineeships
The Nurses (Private Sector) Training Wage (State) Award was varied in the NSW Industrial Commission on the 12 December to allow for Part-time traineeships. This means applications for part-time traineeships can be approved to commence from that date.

There can be no backdating prior to the 12 December 97 as the industrial instruments for the traineeship were not in place.

Where a trainee may have been employed for up to twelve months prior to the commencement date, the employer and the trainee may wish to apply for early completion subject to satisfactory attainment of the competency standards, and no earlier than 12 December 1998.

For any enquiries regarding these training arrangements, please contact the Vocational Training Board on (02) 9266 8579.

JILL GIENTZOTIS
Director of Recognition Services