Ranjit

Ranjit is an extraordinary woman. Originally from Northern India, she has a master’s degree in languages, but she had never worked. Not until she arrived in Australia. And in Australia, she wanted to become far more independent and show her husband and two boys how independent and capable she really was. And so, her story begins.

At the beginning, she worked for Estia Health as a Personal Care Assistant at Parkside, progressing to a Food Service Assistant quite quickly. It was evident to all her knew her that Ranjit had a deep love of cooking. And through the South Australian upskill program, Ranjit was encouraged to take up the opportunity to obtain a Certificate III in Commercial Cookery. Ranjit was nervous, but with the support and belief in her by her Executive Director, she decided she would apply for the program.

Ranjit shares that doing the apprenticeship and learning while she works has been a great help. She says, “I feel blessed to work in this great company, it’s really nice”. Ranjit also mentioned that her own home is over an hour away from work, and even though there is an aged care home near her house, she wouldn’t think of working anywhere else. “, I feel listened to, and the staff are so nice.”

This is a common story amongst our employees. Many just love the homes they work within and wouldn’t consider working anywhere else. “I love the food here and I have learnt so much, all I knew how to cook before was curries, but with the help and encouragement of the Head Chef, I have learnt and enormous variety of dishes” In fact, she loves it so much, she now cooks the same dishes for her husband and boys at home and they love it.

Ranjit has also enjoyed learning how to bake, “we have cakes and snacks at the end of the month, high teas every week and we do a big birthday party with individual cakes for each resident’s birthday. Plus, a canape party every week! I would never have learnt how to make so many different dishes and desserts anywhere else”.

Ranjit enjoys how close she becomes to all the residents and that is one of her other main reasons for never wanting to leave Parkside. Ranjit has taken a short break from completing her Certificate due to personal reasons however looks forward to returning to this in the near future.