Work Placement

Work placement is a mandatory component of all the courses we deliver, except short courses such as first aid, CPR, and manual handling.

Students translate the skills they learned in the classroom-based environment into the actual workplace through workplace tasks. The work placement duration is at least 120 hours for the certificate level qualification and 240 hours for the diploma level.

As mentioned in the specific course pages, distance students will have to have an additional 40 hours on top of the mandatory work placement hours. The work placement is volunteering work. The work placement is into the aged care facility, disability facility, and childcare, respectively for aged care courses, disability courses, and childcare courses.

Arranging Placement

For the blended study mode of Sydney-based students, Advance College is responsible for arranging the placement in the Sydney region for one time. For the distance study mode, it will be the primary responsibility of the student while the college fully helps in finding the placement. In some cases, we might provide the placement even for distance students, which, should have been communicated in the email during the enrolment. Meaning that, if the college has assured the student to provide the placement for distance students, that should have been in the enrolment communication.

Thus, for the distance study mode, it is the primary responsibility of the student to find the placement while the college fully supports communication, and documentation, and puts necessary efforts in ensuring timely placement. Please note that placement arrangements are only in the normal business context, placement can be affected if some unforeseen circumstances happen beyond the control of the college.

Placement shifts

The usual shifts for the work placement are morning. However, arrangements of the shifts or working hours can be based on mutual understanding between the facility manager/supervisor and the student. The evening shift and a limited weekend-only shift are also available for some courses and locations. If you are looking for a weekend-only or evening shift, it is based on mutual understanding and availability. We no longer guarantee to place them at the designated shift.

Approaching for the Placement

The student should have completed the theory assessments and must have attended all the practical classes for blended study mode to start the work placement. Distance students need to complete the theory assessment and obtain the first-aid certificate.

The student may send the assessments via email or bring along the printed copy to get to know the trainer/assessor that they have made substantial progress in theory tasks. The trainer/assessor and placement coordinator determine whether the student can start the work placement. When approaching the placement, the student needs to submit the following documents:

• Criminal history (police) check, issued within six months
• Updated Vaccination Report: Covid-19 vaccination, Flu vaccination
• Completion of Infection Control training (we need the certificate)
• Complete screening for Working with Children Check(WWCC), NDIS worker screening, Ochre card, and working with vulnerable people (WWVP) – (different state has different screening)

The student does not need to submit this document to process the placement.

The student needs to make sure that all the due fees are paid before approaching the placement. If the course fee is cleared and the college receives all the mentioned documents, we place the student in the queue. Based on the student’s enrolled course, location preference, time preference, and the availability of the placement facility, we will communicate with the students when they can start the placement.

We always try to proximate the distance of the facility to the student’s residence, but the distance can keep up with a reasonable travel time when using public transport. Once we arrange the work placement, students cannot cancel it without any legitimate reasons. If they cancel it, the college may not be liable to re-organize the placement and the student should find the placement by himself/herself. If the student requests to re-organize the placement, the student must pay the additional charges of $150.

Documentation/Placement Orientation

The work placement has a separate booklet (log book) in addition to the workplace tasks of the assessment booklet II. The work placement booklet must be duly filled and completed during the work placement. To ensure that placement is being done as per the college requirements, the college will organise a mandatory placement orientation session, just before starting the placement. For the blended mode students, they must attend a two-hour face-to-face session while distance students must attend virtually.

All the ethical codes of practice, responsibilities of each party involved in the work placement, dress code, dealing with different workplace situations, and point of contact, among others, will be discussed during the placement orientation.

During the placement

Students need to work sincerely and responsibly as if they are actual employees of the facility but under the direct supervision of the facility staff all the time of their work placement. Any dishonesty or disciplinary issues might result in an early termination of the placement, resulting in incomplete work placement leading to the course cancellation.

If any issue arises such that you cannot continue the work placement, the student must notify the college and the facility as soon as possible. Once the student can be back to the placement, the remaining hours of the placement can be completed. However, to join the placement again, the student must get confirmation from the facility and notify the college.

After the placement

When the students complete the work placement, they need to make sure that they have properly filled the work placement booklet; and completed all the practical tasks to be done during the work placement. Also, they need to double-check the attendance, daily activity log, and signature of the supervisor.

The student also needs to ensure that the workplace supervisor has provided the feedback. Once they complete all the workplace-related tasks, students can submit the placement paper along with the practical booklet for the final assessment.