Eleanor Ravenarki is a Director of Training Product Development at HumanAbility, Jobs and Skills Council for Australia’s care and support economy. With over 25 years’ experience in community services, education, and vocational training, she brings deep expertise in quality frameworks and inclusive practice. A passionate advocate for equity and autonomy—particularly for people with disability—she has led initiatives with government, industry peak bodies, and SMEs to promote progressive education and workforce reform. Her focus is on supporting a skilled, diverse, and future-ready workforce that strengthens communities across Australia.
Better career pathways, resolving shortages and skills gaps: How Humanability supports growth and change in aged care
Precis
As the Jobs and Skills Council for the Aged Care sector, HumanAbility’s remit is to deliver effective workforce planning, training development and industry stewardship to meet the growing demand in the sector as well as respond to workforce challenges.
HumanAbility’s 2025 Workforce Plan reported seven key workforce challenges:
o Labour force shortages
o Skills Gaps
o Training and qualification issues
o Lack of diversity and inclusion
o Limited career pathways
o Policy and regulatory settings
o Data deficiencies
HumanAbility will present key insights and data from the 2025 Workforce Plan. Her address explains actions HumanAbility is taking to upskill the aged care workforce, grow it at pace, address skills gaps, with a new Aged Care Act, Quality Standards, and growing demand for support at home front of mind.
They will also launch Humanability’s “Career Pathways Framework”, which showcases the rewarding career options and possibilities for progression in the care and support economy, to help the sector attract, retain and develop skilled staff, build in close consultation with Ageing Australia, providers and the broader sector.
The audience will be informed on how they can utilise tools in the new Framework to raise the profile of careers in aged care, and ask questions on future work Humanability is undertaking.
NB: Content will be finalised in the lead up to the conference. There may be scope to revise the focus to meet the conference organisers’ preferences.