EIT Tairāwhiti graduate Nigel Cust has discovered new-found joy in his latest career move. He has not long graduated with the Certificate in Health Disability and Aged Support and now has a job at Dunblane Rest Home and Village hospital unit.

“I thoroughly enjoyed the 17-week course,”said Nigel. “There was so much knowledge and satisfaction… and it opened my eyes.

This is a qualification that opens so many doors – not just in working with elderly people either.”

All his life he had been doing “hard physical work” before a back injury sidelined him and EIT Tairāwhiti tutor Siegfried Gorczynski helped get him onto a new track.

“Siegfried was a huge help in pointing me in the right direction – he was just awesome.”

Nigel says as challenging as his work is, there is something special about working with people who have dementia.

“I enjoy seeing that smile on their faces.”

But it wasn’t always so enlightening. Nigel was sent to a dementia ward for his first week of practical and says he wondered what he had signed up for. “I was quite shocked,” he says.

But now he is more than happy to be helping the generation who raised his generation.

“They were there for us, so it is good to be there for them when they need help. They deserve respect.”

Society made it difficult sometimes for families to juggle work, a mortgage, their own family and their extended family – some of whom may need 24 hour care.

“I can see both sides now,” says Nigel.

Looking after the elderly is a growing industry, and one that has a shortage of men working in it.

Nigel is now keen to continue his education journey, and is looking at studying papers in dementia care while up skilling through short courses at Dunblane.