So, you want to make a difference in the world. If you’re good with people, and you can handle some responsibility, a social worker career might be the one for you. But how can you get started? Here are some top tips on how you can get your foot in the door.
Gaining experience
First and foremost, get as much experience of social care work as you can. This might involve paid work if you can find it, but if not, there’s always plenty of volunteering opportunities out there which can give you that vital first taste of what care work involves. Websites like do-it. org and vinspired. com always host hundreds of opportunities around the UK and are usually updated daily. Your local Jobcentre may also be able to help you find volunteering work, or if you’re in education, the school or university careers adviser is worth a try too.
Education and training
If you want to become a fully-qualified social care worker, you’ll need to have a degree in social work which is approved by the Health and Care Professions Council. Most universities ask for two A-levels as a requirement of taking a three-year bachelor’s degree. Don’t worry if you’ve been to university already though – you could take a postgraduate degree and kick-start your social worker career that way instead.
An alternative route is to get straight into training and study for a qualification while you earn. Various schemes, such as Frontline in Greater London and Greater Manchester, arrange intensive work placements which involve 12 months of training followed by 12 months working towards a master’s degree in social care.
However you choose to train, you’ll be on a number of supervised work placements that will give you experience of working with a wide range of social care users, including older people, people who are vulnerable due to mental or physical difficulties, and people who need help to fully integrate into society.
Finding a full-time role
A great CV always helps, so if you have any personal experiences which could be relevant, get them down. The final step is to get it out there! Specialist recruitment agencies can connect you with potential employers, as can the Jobcentre – or you can approach them yourself. Places like day centres, special needs schools, residential or nursing homes, and community hospitals will all be interested in seeing your CV if they have an opportunity available.
Disclosure: This is a collaborative post for which I was compensated.