A passion for helping older people
"Work and Income supported me to gain new skills in an industry that is job rich."
Maurice's story
Changing career mid-forties wasn’t something Maurice Pou had contemplated. “I never took much notice of older people before this. I thought they were all deaf and losing their marbles”, admits Maurice. “Actually this couldn’t be further from the truth.”
Maurice had been a builder all his working life. Growing up in Whangarei, he moved to Auckland when he was 27. There was plenty of work available in those days and you learned on the job. After a bit of time in Australia, Maurice returned to Auckland and established his own building company.
Late in 2007, Maurice became aware that work was slowing up. They had been flat out and could pick and choose the jobs the company wanted to do. Over a few months there was a lot more competition for work and the firm wasn’t being awarded as many contracts.
Deciding that it was time for something new, Maurice and his family moved back to Whangarei. “When we got here I couldn’t find much work”, Maurice said. “There were odd jobs but not enough to support my family.” Maurice’s wife found a job and became the primary earner.
Sitting at home without work was quite challenging for Maurice. “I thought bugger this, I’m not going to find a job sitting here so I called Work and Income and asked if I could have access to their Job Board”, Maurice explains.
Maurice hadn’t sought assistance from Work and Income in terms of main benefit assistance, “I phoned up for an appointment and the staff at Kamo Service Centre called me back straight away”, Maurice remembers.
An appointment was setup for Maurice to attend the jobz4u seminar and very quickly it was established that Maurice was ‘job ready’ and he was referred to a Work Broker. Asked what sort of work he was looking for Maurice was frank. “I’ll do anything, anything I can do”, Maurice replied. “Have you considered becoming a caregiver”, the Work Broker enquired. As it happens he hadn’t, but he was very willing to give it a go.
Maurice applied to complete the NZQA Level 2 Certificate in Community Support Services and was accepted. “The first week was a big shock”, Maurice remembers. “I hadn’t studied for many years and in the beginning I was wondering what it all meant. Once we entered the workplace it all fell into place.”
On the last day of his work experience at Kamo Home, management asked Maurice if he would like to apply for a position in the Dementia Unit. “I put the application in and that afternoon I had a job starting the next day.”
Maurice recently secured permanent shifts at Kamo Home and has been accepted by Multiskill to study the NZQA Level 3 Certificate in Community Support Services. “I have discovered I have a passion for older people, they have so much knowledge and give us so much”, Maurice said. Clearly the transition from builder to caregiver has been a successful one.