4-minute read – NDIS Carer Series – NDIS training
When was the last time you did workplace training?
Was its useful training?
Did it help you do your job better? Build your career in care faster?
Or was it just a box that needed to be ticked for legal compliance?
Finding a workplace that offers training that helps with your current job, and enables you to upskill and build your career, can be a challenge.
Finding one that offers useful NDIS training or not-for-profit training can feel impossible.
The positive news is, if your workplace doesn’t offer training, you can find it yourself, without needing to hand over thousands of dollars to learn something new and useful.
Over the last few years, online learning has become a foundation for sharing knowledge from experts who have practical experience in an industry or specialisation.
They distill their skills into a combination of webinars, written theory, case studies and practical assessments, so other people can benefit from what they have learned, as they have built their own careers.
If you are looking for ways to build up your skillset, especially in areas like workplace technology and leadership, heading online is a great place to start.
One word of warning: not every course is created equal, and not every course is created by an expert.
Read the credentials of the course provider carefully, and always ensure the website is safe, credible and the e-commerce system secure, before ever making a payment.
Below, we have identified 5 online training options – ranging from the most basic to more advanced – that can help you communicate and lead better, present more effectively and manage teams more productively.
Specific NDIS training
Working for an NDIS service provider and progressing in your career, often means developing an understanding of the regulatory environment that surrounds the scheme.
A number of organisations provide NDIS training, with costs ranging from very little, right up to hundreds of dollars and more.
The good news is, there is also credible and quality NDIS training available for free – provided by the NDIS Commission.
You can explore what is on offer, or dive straight into specific courses relating to areas like the NDIS code of conduct and NDIS Quality and Safeguards or an 8-module induction for new workers.
Outside of the NDIS Commission, NDS provides access to more than 50 quality workforce training courses for around $200 per year for an individual.
With these courses, you can cover everything from bullying awareness, and manual handling for support workers, through to managing change, business writing and dealing with complaints (all highly useful management skills!).
Getting the basics right
One of the most challenging aspects of workplace technology is getting the basics right.
Once you feel comfortable with everyday programs like Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, you quickly learn how difficult it is to ‘break’ software, and this empowers you to be more adventurous so you can learn more advanced skills.
To help you reach that level of comfort, Microsoft provides detailed online courses, with video and written theory, for FREE!
In just a couple of hours, you can be delivering high quality documents and presentations, whipping up cost projections and redirecting your email inbox based on the sender.
Understanding social media
As the world becomes smaller thanks to digital technology, social media is helping us to connect, both at work, and at home.
Whether you love it or hate it, platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram, make the world go round, and can be your pathway to e-meeting the right people who can help you build your career.
But this can only happen, if you know what you’re doing online!
If you feel uncomfortable or out-of-your-depth on social media, sites like HubSpot walk you step-by-step through setting up and using Facebook, and even take it one giant leap further with an entire FREE academy of online courses related to social media marketing.
When it comes to LinkedIn, the platform all about developing professional networks and connections, Open Colleges has a great FREE guide to getting started on LinkedIn, and Hootsuite can take you through using LinkedIn for business.
While this is not specific NDIS training, having these skills is useful to managers and leaders, and especially those working in head offices, in any industry – disability and aged care included.
Become an expert in business and case management software
Coming back to NDIS training, facilitating client-centric care is a crucial skill, and is supported by a well-managed organisation.
Having the right business and case management software, a platform that optimises workflows and productivity, enables you to do more of what you do best.
VisiCase Care is built on a powerful workflow engine and enables automation of key business processes. When the full product is implemented in your workplace, you will have access to training and documents that will help you use it easily and effectively.
In any situation when key software is introduced to your business, training and documentation will usually be made available, so take full advantage, read up and dive in, so you can become the team expert.
Managing relationships
Regardless of your role, managing relationships is important.
The more you move into business management, sales or administration roles, this task becomes more formal. You will be expected to keep detailed notes on interactions with potential new clients who have not yet signed up to your services.
If your business management or case management software doesn’t provide options for this, free Client Relationship Management (CRM) platforms, like HubSpot, can become an important part of your workplace technology.
But how do you use a CRM if you have never used one before?
In addition to social media courses, HubSpot Academy also provides excellent FREE courses on how to use it and CRMs like it, how to manage business relationships effectively, and how to improve leadership and communication skills.
The bottom line on career, business and NDIS training
Moving up in your career in aged or disability care, or even in other not-for-profit or commercial businesses, means taking full advantage of training opportunities.
And with cost no longer a factor thanks to the internet, training opportunities are everywhere!
Where possible, dive into specific NDIS training courses so you develop a well-rounded and robust understanding of the industry and regulatory environment within which you work.
Regardless of your career trajectory in this industry, this will help!
Use any spare time to find free or low-cost online training options in business, management, communication, leadership, technology, and work on them when you can, knowing that self-paced options mean you have as long as you like (within reason) to get your study done.
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VisiCase provides an NDIS-ready business automation platform, built on powerful workflows. It helps you manage, streamline and optimise every component of your business, and its modules empower a positive employee and client experience.
Photo by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash