By BLAKE METCALF-HOLT
A NEW place to call home … and to work.
Latrobe Valley Village, Newborough will soon open a fresh and neat shared living quarters to accommodate the arrival of its latest foreign workers to the aged care home as a part of the Regional Worker Accommodation Fund.
Refurbished from a previous wing of the facility, 14 former aged care rooms have been transformed into seven apartments, which include a kitchen and eating area, bathroom and bedroom for each.
An outdoor area, communal kitchen and meeting spot is also featured.
Member for Eastern Victoria and Minister for Regional Development, Harriet Shing took a tour of the site last Friday (July 18), which is expected to be complete by the end of August.
“Finding a place to live is one of the biggest challenges in attracting and keeping workers in the regions – building workers’ accommodation is just one way we want to help,” she said.
“This is about creating secure jobs, helping businesses to grow and attracting even more visitors to regional Victoria.”
The MP and Latrobe Valley Village Chief Executive, Alison Skeldon both acknowledged the continued lack of aged care workers for the region, which contributed in securing this development, to ensure highly skilled people are working in the industry.
Free TAFE qualifications and short courses were cited as a combatant of those workforce shortages, which was announced for this year.
Ms Skeldon believes the tide is starting to turn with help of such initiatives.
“Working in residual care or aged care has not been as highly valued as other industries and that’s now changed … I feel we’re at the beginning of changing that around,” she said.
“Working with people at a really important stage of their life, and we need people who care and want to do that for the long term.”
Latrobe Valley Village has invested and passionate staff, which includes a strong contingent of recently hired Filipino employees who will be moving into the living space once open.
Eleniza, Eddie, Herlene, Jonel and Joyce all made the move from the Philippines to Australia.
For those like Herlene Joy Chipo, she made the tough decision to leave her family and children in Baguio, to ultimately set themselves up later on.
“It (was) also an opportunity for us to come to Australia to build a better future for them as well,” she said.
“(Latrobe Valley Village) is very supportive of us … the staff here are very welcoming and the residents as well.”
The group will soon fill out the premise. The space is also large enough that it could allow families to eventually arrive as well.
“We’re very excited to move in because it is also very convenient for us to be just near the facility,” Ms Joy Chipo added.
Ms Skeldon said that due to the inability to fill out positions locally, the board, under suggestion from the federal government and following suit from other aged care facilities, made the decision to recruit abroad.
“We have always employed local people, we have always worked with the local TAFE sector, and we’ve always worked with local universities to ensure we have local staff,” she said.
“Like everybody else, there is not the pipeline, it’s not as full as it should be.
“There are a range of initiatives for us to do that (hire overseas) and we’ve taken the path of choosing Filipino-trained workers.”
The shared living space is located right in front of the retirement village, meaning the staff will not only begin to develop a good relationship with the aged care residents, but also those who may arrive soon thereafter.
“The retirement village residents are really excited about it too because they like the idea of welcoming new people and they like the idea of those people coming and staying, because there are many people in the retirement village who may choose to live here as well,” Ms Skeldon said.
Other projects in Gippsland have also been announced as beneficiaries of the first round of the Regional Worker Accommodation Fund at Omeo District Health, Bairnsdale Regional Health Service, and Bass Coast Health, Wonthaggi.
