Marnie Banger
(Australian Associated Press)

More older Australians will be receiving care at work in the years to come, according to a top executive at Deloitte.

The firm’s chief strategy and innovation officer Rob Hillard has expressed the sentiment while releasing a new report laying bare the future of work in the nation.

The country’s ageing population will create new need in the caring profession and disrupt the current aged care model, he believes.

“The idea of simply saying, ‘I’m going to go into a nursing home and be cared for’, doesn’t make any sense, because I’m almost certainly going to be far healthier than I was, and want to be engaged in far more things when I’m older,” Mr Hillard told Canberra’s National Press Club on Wednesday.

“So the sorts of things I’m going to want to be engaged in potentially include doing productive work and I’m going to need carers who are going to help facilitate me to do that.”

Mr Hillard referenced the case of late academic David Goodall, who was told by Edith Cowan University at age 102 that he couldn’t keep working from his office as his travel to get there had been deemed a health risk.

The university later reversed the decision, finding a spot for Dr Goodall at another campus closer to his home.

“That was an extreme example but that’s going to be far more common. People are going to be looking for care.”

Deloitte is also expecting care workers to get a pay rise as demand for the such services outstrips supply in the years leading up to 2030.

At the moment, supply in the workforce is ahead of demand.

“Some of these skills of the heart are low-wage, they will be less low wage in the future,” Deloitte Access Economics partner Chris Richardson said.