As an NDIS service provider, your disability support workers play a vital role in helping NDIS participants achieve their goals. Upskilling your support workers can help ensure they provide the highest standards of client care – ultimately helping your business to grow and thrive.

We’ve compiled a list of 17 NDIS courses to educate and help your staff build skills in key areas. Most of these NDIS professional development opportunities can be completed in your staff’s free time or during last-minute cancelled shifts. 

Low-cost or free online disability courses

Quality, safety, human rights, and abuse prevention

These NDIS courses explore the important topics of quality support provision, human rights, and prevention of abuse, neglect, and violence when supporting people with disabilities. 

1. NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission – Quality, Safety and You

This interactive online course explains workers’ obligations under the NDIS Code of Conduct, from the perspective of NDIS participants. It is advised that all registered NDIS providers include this course as part of new worker inductions, with existing workers encouraged to complete it over time. The four modules take about 90 minutes to finish, and workers will receive a Certificate of Completion.

2. National Disability Services (NDS) – Human Rights and You eLearning Program

This free, video-based eLearning program explores why human rights matter when supporting people with disability. The four modules take about 30 minutes to complete and gain a certificate.

3. NDS – Understanding Abuse eLearning Program

Also from NDS, this free 30-minute course helps disability support workers recognise abuse as a violation of a person's human rights. It revolves around focusing on what is good for each person as the best way to enable rights and minimise abuse risk. It also covers the signs that abuse is or has been occurring to their clients. 

4. La Trobe University – Support for Decision Making 

This free online resource is based on the understanding that everyone has the right to participate in decision-making. Built on an evidence-based framework, it helps support workers to enable the people they’re supporting to exercise control and choice in their own lives. The six modules each take between 30 and 60 minutes to complete.

Food safety

Assisting with meal preparation is a common task for disability support workers. Food safety training can help ensure your NDIS employees understand and apply important food handling principles.

5. DoFoodSafely 

This free online learning program explains how to safely work with food in commercial settings. After completing the seven modules, staff can undertake a quiz and gain their DoFoodSafely Certificate of Completion. Provided by the Department of Health Victoria, this course is also supported by Queensland Health, South Australia Health and Tasmania Health.

6. Food Safety Australia – Safe Food Handling Course

This $49 course covers the basics of food safety in an easy-to-understand format. Participants can download a Statement of Achievement upon successful completion of three quizzes.

7. COVID-19 awareness for food service training

This free online course is available to anyone working in NSW food service and covers key measures recommended for COVID-19 control. It takes about 20 minutes, with a certificate emailed to participants who successfully complete the 20-question multiple-choice quiz.

Infection control

With infection prevention being more important than ever, these courses are especially important for NDIS disability support workers.

8. Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care – Infection Prevention and Control eLearning 

This suite of modules provides information about infection prevention and control principles for Australian healthcare settings. Their ‘Basics of Infection Prevention and Control Orientation’ module is suitable for all health care workers and students, including disability support workers.

To enrol, you need to register as a new user in the National Hand Hygiene Initiative‘s Learning Management System.

9. Department of Health – COVID-19 infection control training

As Australia continues to grapple with COVID-19, this free online training has been developed for care workers across all health settings, including those in NDIS disability support, to ensure they remain COVID-safe. Users need to register to access the modules. 

10. NDS – Infection prevention and control

This comprehensive course offers support workers the latest evidence-based information about preventing and controlling infection according to current Work Health Safety (WHS) legislation, standards, and industry codes of practice.

Individual access costs $35 plus GST (with volume discounts available) and it takes about 60 minutes to complete.

11. NDS – Hand Hygiene Short Course

This free course takes approximately 30 minutes and covers crucial elements of hand hygiene, including how to hand-wash and the impacts of poor hand hygiene. 

Manual handling

As an important component of supporting many people with disability, NDIS manual handling training can help reduce risks for both your staff and the individuals they support.

12. NDS – Manual Handling for Disability Support Workers

This awareness e-learning module explores manual handling techniques for supporting people with disability. It looks at factors that make a manual task hazardous and how to manage associated risks. The manual offers 30 demonstrative videos and interactive activities, with individual access costing $75 plus GST for a 12-month licence.

Training in specific conditions

Support workers working with NDIS participants may be interested in these online courses about conditions specific to their clients.

13. Mental health – MHPOD

This evidence-based, free online learning resource currently contains over 100 hours of material across 74 topics. Originally designed for professionals working in mental health (such as nurses and psychologists), it has been expanded to cater to a broader audience, including disability support workers.

14. Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) – University of Tasmania Understanding TBI MOOC

This massive open online course (MOOC) offers free, online, university-quality education suitable for anyone with an interest in learning more about TBI, including disability support workers. It takes around two hours per week over five weeks to complete, with a certificate available for participants who do the final quiz for each module.

Vocational and leadership NDIS courses

While it’s possible to work in NDIS disability support without a formal qualification, these NDIS courses set workers up for successful, lasting careers in disability services. 

15. Certificate III in Individual Support

This qualification equips workers to provide person-centred support for people living with disability, with courses delivered by providers across Australia. My Skills note the average course duration is 34 weeks, with candidates needing to complete at least 120 hours of work experience. The average fee is currently $2900, although courses may be free under JobTrainer for eligible people.

16. Support coordinator courses

NDIS support coordinators typically have formal qualifications or a background in allied health (such as social work, physiotherapy or occupational therapy) or the disability sector. A bachelor-level degree or a certificate-level course is usually required, although industry experience may be sufficient. This article by Seek explains more about becoming an NDIS support coordinator.

17. NDS – Cert IV in Leadership and Management (Emerging Leaders in Disability)

Are there people in your organisation with leadership potential? This NDIS course – intended to foster rapid advancement of frontline and mid-level managers in the disability sector – can assist them to develop their talents.

With modules aligned to the NDIS Disability Capability Framework, participants study topics such as effective communication for workplace leaders, implementing an operational plan, and executing customer service strategies.

Running a successful NDIS business

Encouraging your staff to complete NDIS courses can improve your business’s efficiency and profitability. Using quality digital tools and software is another excellent way to streamline and optimise your operations. 

ShiftCare’s easy-to use software platform is specifically designed for disability support, aged care and allied health businesses. By cutting paperwork and increasing efficiency, it helps you deliver an exceptional standard of care while growing your business.

We also have a range of helpful resources for running a successful NDIS business, such as tips for writing professional progress notes and optimising NDIS payment processing.

With subscriptions from only $8/month, ShiftCare assists disability support providers (like Next Wave, which provides support coordination and recovery coaching for NDIS participants) to automate their businesses.

Sounds like a good fit for your business? Find out how ShiftCare can streamline your business, cut down costs, and give you more time to focus on what matters.

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