From industry to educator
Meet Kylie, Course Manager at the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Education Centre (ANMEC)
- Kylie oversees students that are studying health care (individual support, aged care, disability and allied health assistance).
- She has 30+ years’ experience in aged care across care, nursing and management, starting at age 15.
- Kylie has been with ANMEC for 9 years and previously led training and development in SA aged care facilities.
“I've been working in the aged care sector for 30 plus years in different roles and saw that there was actual need for a change in training. I began working as a clinical educator in aged care and for the last nine years I have worked at ANMEC.
I've been able to actually implement changes to training on the floor. There's a big gap between training and working on the floor as a nurse. I’m able to implement education and training to make a difference.”
“Probably 25 years ago, I got an opportunity to teach at a registered training organisation, teaching care workers how to make beds. It transitioned from there and other opportunities came my way with different training organisations.
For many years I worked clinically in aged care, but also kept my foot in the door at training organisations to keep up my skills in Education as well.”
“A big part of my role as a Course Manager is overseeing the delivery of ANMEC's VET for school program. These students are in Year 11 and Year 12 and attend one day a week throughout the school year to gain a qualification in Certificate III in Individual Support, or a Certificate III in Allied Health Assistance.
We have around a 98% success rate annually in this program and the growth has been incredible. I love seeing this growth, expanding my team, and seeing the students thrive in a pathway that they see as a great fit for them in health care. My role allows flexibility and autonomy to grow health care programs, create opportunities for existing workforce departments, partner with great organisations to deliver innovative home care projects and community adult education programs - it’s all rewarding seeing people succeed, and seeing your team grow professionally.”
“A typical day for me is varied. I do have a lot of scheduled meetings for governance and compliance requirements, lots of industry partnership meetings and check-ins with my team of Educators throughout the day. I'll jump in the practical room to see how students are going or to assist with manual handling training if we need a second Educator.
Some days I allocate to writing or reviewing curriculum or completing validations, moderations and course evaluations as part of my role. It’s up to me how I schedule out my day so having variety is great.
A lot of my job, it is sitting at a computer, setting structure, having a bit of a strategic plan and looking at the business growth amongst my team.
In the busier months from May to August you will see me out and about presenting at a lot of school career events. This is so important because students need to know their pathways and health care options - we want highly skilled health care workers entering the workforce, and that starts in our VET for school programs.”
“It's a great opportunity. This year I've employed another two educators who have been teaching but not in a vocational setting. To see the growth in educators to bring their knowledge and skills into a classroom has been so rewarding. It's now putting it into a classroom and teaching the next generation of healthcare workers. Students thrive when they have Educators that are nurses - they receive so much additional learning and sharing of experiences that is invaluable.
There's a lot of rewarding days that you get by seeing students succeed and knowing that you've played a part in the next healthcare workforce that is out there.”