Graduate Certificate in Ageing

Please note that the name of this course has changed from Graduate Certificate in Ageing to Graduate Certificate in Gerontology and is currently pending academic board approval.

The Graduate Certificate in Ageing at the University of Melbourne is an exciting interdisciplinary course that is designed to provide students with key competencies in the ageing field to meet the rapidly increasing market demand.

This is the first course of its kind that brings together academics from multiple disciplines, including public health, medicine, architecture and design, engineering, business and economics, government, and the arts, in collaboration with leading experts from Australia and around the world.

In this course you will:

• Learn how national and global politics, economics, ethics and social equity influence the way society plans for and meets infrastructure and service delivery requirements of ageing populations in Australia and around the world
• Hear expert perspectives on the trends, issues and challenges faced by communities, organisations, businesses and governments
• Investigate how an ageing population drives workforce and retirement trends, and how recent technological advances can revolutionise the ageing experience
• Develop the capacity to identify market needs, negotiate with government and shape policy
• Identify and analyse the multiple determinants of healthy ageing and develop integrative approaches to managing them.

The greater integration of technology into everyday life continues to revolutionise areas such as healthcare provision, product design, productivity and transportation, and attention to the needs of older people in each of these areas is increasing. Product development associated with the field of gerontechnology is beginning to have an effect on many other industries. Urban design, immigration policy, consumer policy, consumer protection, insurance and financial education are all being affected by the global ageing phenomenon. Notions of retirement are evolving and plans for longer working lives are influencing the approaches that large organisations and financial advisors are taking with ageing populations.

The Graduate Certificate in Ageing is designed to increase your leadership and career potential to meet the accelerating market demand for a skilled workforce. The course provides both a contextual overview and specialist skills along with knowledge of the key issues around ageing. Local, state and federal governments along with NGOs and private sector organisations are keen to employ skilled graduates.

In the Australian aged-care sector alone, there are currently over 350,000 paid employees and the Productivity Commission on Caring for Older Australians expects this workforce to quadruple in size over the next forty years (Productivity Commission on Caring for Older Australians, 2011). Half of these employers report skill shortages due to a lack of specialist knowledge required to meet service delivery demands.

Access career opportunities through our extensive Industry Network. Network members range from prominent private consulting companies and the Victorian government, to large service delivery organisations, consultancies, financial institutions, technology firms, retirement villages and peak bodies.