Support work is helping someone live their own life: an older person at home, a disabled adult in a flat, a young person at a residential service. It is the biggest source of entry level work in New Zealand that comes with a real qualification pathway, and pay is set by a national pay scale that goes up as you train, so the work you do this year is worth more next year.
You visit people in their own homes on a run: help with showering and dressing, meals, medication reminders, shopping, and company. Short visits, several people a day, mostly on your own with a phone number to ring.
You work a shift in one building with a team. Personal care, meals, moving people safely, activities, and writing up notes. Busier, less driving, and more people around you.
Supporting one person or a small flat with daily life, work, study and getting out. More about doing things alongside someone than doing things for them.
You will get attached to people, and some of them will get sicker or die. Good employers talk about that openly and support you through it. Ask about it in the interview.
None to start. Most employers hire on attitude and train you, and caring for your own family counts as experience. Say it on your CV.
For home and community work, a full licence and a car are usually required because you drive between visits and are paid for the travel. Residential and rest home work usually does not need one.
Required for every care role. The employer arranges it. Past convictions do not automatically stop you, and it is better to mention them than have them turn up.
The New Zealand Certificate in Health and Wellbeing, levels 2 to 4. You do it while employed, the employer usually arranges it, and each level you finish moves you up the pay scale.
Personal care means bodies. It stops being a big deal within a fortnight, and the people who last are the ones who treat it as ordinary.
Rosters, not office hours. Morning runs from about 7am, evening runs, sleepovers and weekends, and residential services run shifts around the clock. Part time and casual are common and easy to get, and many people build up hours across two employers.
Apply for an entry level support worker or caregiver role, because employers hire on attitude and train you. Once you start you work towards the New Zealand Certificate in Health and Wellbeing while you are paid, and each level you finish moves you up the pay scale. A full driver licence helps for home and community work, and every role requires police vetting the employer arranges.
Support worker pay follows a national pay scale tied to the qualification level you have reached, so it goes up as you train rather than staying flat. The rate on this page is read from the support work roles listed on FindMeAJob right now, and every listing states its own pay.
No. Most support work employers take people with no experience and no qualification and train them, because the things they cannot train are patience, reliability and kindness. Caring for a family member counts and belongs on your CV.
For home and community support, usually yes, along with your own car, because you drive between visits and are paid for that travel. Rest home and residential roles usually do not need one, so start there if you do not drive.
Help with showering, dressing, meals and medication reminders, moving people safely, shopping and appointments, activities, and writing up notes. In disability support it is more about doing things alongside someone so they can live their own life.
Physically it is on your feet and involves personal care, which stops feeling strange quickly. Emotionally it is real: you get attached and some people you support will get sicker or die. Ask an employer how they support staff through that, because the good ones have an answer ready.