Personal Care Worker
A frontline Aged Care worker providing personal and daily-living support.
A Personal Care Worker (sometimes called a personal care assistant or assistant in nursing) is the most common frontline role in residential and community Aged Care. The job covers daily-living support such as showering, dressing, mobility, meals, medication prompting and social connection, usually working alongside nurses and allied health staff.
Most employers expect a Certificate III in Individual Support (Ageing) as the baseline qualification, and many workers go on to a Certificate IV for team-leader or coordination duties. Before starting, a worker generally needs Aged Care worker screening, current first aid and CPR, and any provider-mandated training. From 1 November 2025 the screening is either a National Police Check (Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check) issued within the last 3 years or an NDIS Worker Screening Check.
For providers, the challenge is keeping every personal care worker continuously compliant: screening, training currency and immunisation records all have to stay valid. A worker can carry these credentials between jobs in a Career Passport, which lets providers see a current compliance picture when the report runs rather than chasing paperwork. See our guide on how to become an Aged Care worker for the full pathway.
This is general information, not compliance advice. Always confirm requirements with the relevant regulator, and remember that providers keep the legal responsibility to sight credentials and decide who can work.
We work hard to keep everything accurate, and our compliance engine keeps up with the rules as they change. Even so, we might get a detail slightly wrong or miss something. No one's perfect. If you think something here needs updating, email us at resources@koora.care. We would genuinely rather know, because we all do better when we help each other get it right.