But Mrs Geraghty fears the National Disability Insurance Scheme will fail in the long-term if the scheme is not supported by a skilled and trained workforce.

“I campaigned for the NDIS and was over the moon when it came in,” she said.

“But the government needs to look at the whole picture. Having the participants with the correct funding and all that is only half the answer. They need to be supported by a skilled and trained workforce otherwise it won’t work.”

Mrs Geraghty said a new report, which had its Illawarra launch at Shellharbour TAFE on Tuesday, addressed the shortfalls in workforce training and development in the NDIS.

A Portable Training Entitlement System for the Disability Support Services Sector, co-authored by Dr Rose Ryan and Dr Jim Stanford from the Centre for Future Work, looks at how changes to funding under the NDIS has seen a dramatic decrease in workforce training and development.

The report also investigates a proposal developed by the Australian Services Union to introduce a portable training system for NDIS workers.

“There is no money for training under NDIS at the moment so I’m all for the recommendations in this report,” Mrs Geraghty said.

“I’ve been in the industry for 19 years and organisations had government funding to train us. I decided on a career path and worked towards it and became a [NDIS] coordinator.

“But now we are hiring people with absolutely no experience and the only training they are getting is with their peers.

“Another issue is there are a lot of aging support workers, such as myself, in our industry. In my office five of the 12 will probably leave in the next five to 10 years.

“It is imperative that the new workers coming in get the proper training, especially considering most are now working autonomously.”

Statistics show that by June 2019 there will be an estimated 8900 participants in the National Disability Insurance Scheme in the Illawarra/Shoalhaven region 

In the last 12 months there has been an additional 6815 health and social assistance jobs in the region, a significant proportion of which come from new jobs in the NDIS.

Read more: An NDIS decision not to provide MND sufferer and researcher Dr Justin Yerbury with a wheelchair overturned

But ASU secretary Natalie Lang said the lack of training and development is driving workers out of the disability sector.

“An under-resourced, untrained workforce threatens the aspirations of the NDIS in providing the best support and services to people with disabilities,” she said.

“A portable training system would bring much needed skills and specialisation into the NDIS and develop career paths for workers.”

Key features of a portable training system for NDIS workers include:

ASU members plan to hold regional rallies in October as part of their Let’s make the NDIS the best it can be, campaign.