Hi,looking for info on carer courses please

good vibes

Hello there,

im a man in my late 40's living in & from Dublin, I've been p\t carer for my father for nearly 10 years.
im now looking to purse a career as qualified carer.
Does anybody have any advice on the best course to take & the best collage to attend ?
is it fetac level 5 ? will the social welfare cover the fee's for all the courses\collages ?
are there different kinds of carers? can you give me some examples please?
a lot of questions there I know :-) but any info would be greatly appreactited ....

Thanks in advance j

looksee

I can't give you precise course information, but I think you will be looking for Fetac 5 and 6. There are a number of courses covering various aspects of caring, you have to check them out to see which ones suit your requirements and how accessible they are for you. http://www.dublin.ie/disp_list.aspx?catid=127

I think you will find that if you move pretty fast you may still get into the interviews for next September, interviews tend to happen around now.

The Diddakoi

FETAC has been replaced by QQI now.

The Irish Ambulance Training Institute has a good list of courses which are provided in many colleges.

http://www.ambulancetraining.ie/index.php?page=fetac-modules

If you are on a Carers Allowance you can switch to a Back to Education Allowance, which is paid at the same rate as Carer's.

Rough costs for level 5:

€200 reg­is­tra­tion fee (paid by all stu­dents)
€200 Gov­ern­ment Levy (exemp­tions for med­ical card hold­ers, those in receipt of a stu­dent grant e.g. SUSI and social wel­fare recip­i­ents e.g. Back to Edu­ca­tion Allowance)
€50 QQI Exam­i­na­tion fee (exemp­tions for med­ical card holders)

good vibes

Thanks a million Looksee & Alf66.
That's a great help.

Just a few more questions,
hope im not asking for too much info here ;-)

Could you tell me the names of some different kinds of carers please?
for example; is a special needs carer called " a special needs carer" ?
is a person who works in a Respite center called a Respite carer?
is a home help carer called that? you get the gist ;-)
& what kind of work do these different carers do?

im sure there's many different kinds of carers.
im looking to find as much info on as many different kinds of carers
& the work they do as possible, so I can make an informed decision
to find the most suitable type of position for myself.

The Diddakoi

Not sure of the different types of Carer, you might get some helpful info from the Carers Association:

http://www.carersireland.com/trainingunit_employmentopps.php

looksee

I think the best approach would be to see what courses are available and then see which is closest to your requirements. Yes there are different kinds of carers, the most obvious is probably childcare, but some of the courses would cover more than one kind of carer.

good vibes

Thanks again ;-)

good vibes

Hi...antother question.I've signed up for level 5 fetac\qqi course in loughlinstown....when I've got a level 5 QQi cert what would the rate of pay be an hour? is the rate of pay the same for home help carers as carers who work in a respite centre? ....thanks in advance...

CiDeRmAn

I think the rate of pay will be dependent on the service you are working in.
The HSE will have very different rates of pay than the private sector care homes and services.
Also, rather than focus on the pay, check the other elements, annual leave and sick leave entitlements, not to mention night duty or on call commitments, these may differ and have more of an impact than a purely monetary one.

good vibes

Thanks CiDeRmAn ....I am seriously looking to make this a career & not just for monetary gain.thanks for that that's a great help.,I've taken care of my Dad for years but all these courses & qqi level 5 ect is all new to me....but im getting a lot of great info on Boards. thanks to good people like yourself.....

CiDeRmAn

It's no problem, I have colleagues who have entered the field via differing means over the years.
In all honesty a certain large proportion did so as they had family already in the line of work and this gave them an advantage over others in terms of being prepared for the employers expectations.
That said, now I see people getting into the workplace albeit in a non client contact role such as custodial care, cleaning and the like, and using the time to take the necessary courses from a more secure financial base and then, with the courses done, applying for Care Assistant roles as they are posted online.
Fetac/QQI level 5, Manual Handling, AED/BLS training, these are all well worth having under your belt prior to interview though the latter two will be provided by the employer as well as regular updates.
I work as a Clinical Nurse Manager in a large service here in Ireland.