Who cares?

If you care, spare some time to look at rewarding opportunities and Apprenticeships in adult social care.

How about taking on a job where you can feel good every day, knowing you are helping other people live their lives more independently and freely? That’s what a career in adult social care is about.

Adult social care is about providing personal and practical support to help people live their lives. This might be working with a 20 year old man with a learning disability or an 80 year old woman with dementia.

There are a huge range of jobs available in adult social care such as front line care workers, managers, activity organisers and therapists, as well as specialist roles, chefs, maintenance and administration.

You could be working in a home, out in your local community, or in someone’s house. Somewhere in your community there’s a job you can do to help others.

If you’re new to adult social care, then it could seem daunting. That’s why an Apprenticeship is a really good place to start. As an apprentice, you’ll earn while you learn, gain nationally recognised qualifications and develop the skills and knowledge to become a confident and skilled care worker.

Apprenticeships are made up of on and off the job training. Most Apprenticeships last between one and two years, and when you finish, you’ll have a broad range of qualifications and the experience you need to work in adult social care. This will give you a solid foundation for future management roles and career progression. An estimated extra 1 million workers are needed in the sector by 2025, so finding work shouldn’t be a problem!

To find an Apprenticeship in adult social care, you can visit the National Apprenticeship Service and search their vacancies
https://apprenticeshipvacancymatchingservice.lsc.gov.uk

To find out more about working in adult social care, visit
www.skillsforcare.org.uk/icare

After completing an Apprenticeship in health and social care, Hannah, 19, became a Community Care Worker with Hertfordshire County Council.

Hannah knew she wanted to pursue a care related career and went on to study a care related course at college. It was here that her tutor suggested she went to the council’s Apprenticeship programme open day.

During the open day, Hannah realised she liked the idea of a more practical programme and was successfully accepted on a health and social care Apprenticeship.

During her Apprenticeship, with the support of a mentor, Hannah worked at a residential home and two day centres which provide support for adults with a variety of needs.

Once her 18-month programme was complete, Hannah continued to work at The Stevenage Resource Centre and was later offered the job of day service support worker.

Hannah’s long-term goal is to be a social worker, and she is taking her first step towards this dream through her new role as a community care worker within the council.

Hannah has really benefited from the mixture of study and practical work experience. She found it really useful to be able to put the theory she was learning into the context of the service users she was dealing with every day. She has built up a vast amount of practical experience that she will take forward into her new role.

But most importantly, if she hadn’t completed her Apprenticeship, Hannah believes she would have found it impossible to even think of becoming a social worker, which now seems to be a very real possibility in the future.

Commenting on her Apprenticeship, Hannah said: “It’s such a great programme, a real door-opener. Its set me up for following my career goal, and I would never have got there otherwise.”