First workers from Vanuatu to earn Cert III under PALM scheme

15 workers employed by Port Macquarie's St Agnes' Care & Lifestyle have become the first from Vanuatu to graduate with a Certificate III in Individual Support under the Federal Government’s Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) Aged Care Expansion (ACE) scheme. To mark the occasion, a graduation ceremony (pictured) was held on 1 May at the St Agnes’ Catholic Parish Hall, Port Macquarie. In attendance were representatives from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), PALM and ACE teams, St Agnes’ Catholic Parish, residential aged care, and the local community. St Agnes’ Catholic Parish joined the PALM scheme in early 2023, and in June last year, staff visited Vanuatu to begin 'in-country training' and recruit the workers. They arrived in Port Macquarie in August 2023. At the ceremony, Reiko Take, Assistant Director Pacific Labour Mobility Country Engagement Section, DFAT, said the ACE program arose from Australian aged care providers' increasing demand for PALM workers.

“The Australian Government is funding the ACE program both to help aged care providers recruit much-needed carers, and to provide Pacific and Timorese workers with an opportunity to gain the skills they need to become carers,” she said.

"Working and studying at the same time is such a difficult thing to do, and even more so in a different country away from family and your support networks," Reiko added. The new graduates will remain working in residential aged care for St Agnes’ Care & Lifestyle for up to four years, and then will return home to Vanuatu. A second group of Ni-Vanuatu workers arrived in Port Macquarie in March and have commenced work with St Agnes’ Care & Lifestyle to work under the same arrangement