Understand how to develop a career in care

Did you know that social services is a term for a wide range of services in the community?

It includes:

• childcare services (like childminding, nurseries and after school care clubs)
• social care support for people of all ages (in places like care homes, day care centres and people’s own homes)
• social work services (including children and young people, adult and community justice settings).

We’ll explain that there are different paths you can take towards your first opportunity, plus a range of worthwhile roles to choose from. There are also opportunities to develop your career. This could include moves and promotions, plus developing your knowledge and skills in specialised areas. 

With such a big workforce and many different organisations to work with it might feel daunting having to choose a direction. Perhaps you have looked at job websites and felt confused by the range of roles advertised?

To help make things clearer, here are some videos of different types of job. Play the videos and decide which kind of setting you’d like to explore further. For example, would you prefer to work with young people or adults?

Early learning and childcare

Residential childcare 

Social care 

Social work 

In our careers website, we split types of role into three main areas. These are:

• children and young people (childcare)
• social services and healthcare (social care)
• social work

You will find these three areas at the bottom of every page of these learning resources, so you can explore them at any time. We’ve chosen these categories because it’s the best way of showing you the different pathways (including the qualifications you can study at college or university, or complete in work). There is however lots of flexibility between the categories, and you can change roles and take your knowledge and skills with you.

The buttons below will take you to our three career pages (each page will open in a new tab in your internet browser). Go to the page and read about the roles. You can also read, or play videos of, some career stories from current workers. Once you’ve done this, return to this page and answer the questions below.

• Which roles seem most interesting to you, and why?
• Which values do you have which would suit these roles?
• Do you have any previous experience from your personal life or other jobs which you think will be helpful in this role?

You can use MyLearning if you want to take notes about the roles you are interested in.

There’s no wrong path to a career in care. The right path is the one that will suit you best and help you develop the career you want.

Click on the rows below to get some more information about the different paths.

The buttons below will take you to qualification tools on our careers website (the page will open in a new tab in your internet browser).

Choose a category and find answers to the questions below.

• Can you identify a qualification which best suits your circumstances and the job you want to do?
• Can you describe how to access the qualification you want to do?
• Can you name a qualification you can progress to if you want to develop in your career?

You can use MyLearning if you want to take notes about any of the qualifications.

If you need help to use or understand the qualifications tools please email [email protected]

The SSSC Code of Practice for Social Service Workers (which you learned about earlier in this resource) say that all registered workers must undertake relevant learning to maintain and improve their knowledge and skills.

The SSSC calls this Continuous Professional Learning (CPL) and we produce lots of free resources to help you. Completing a qualification in work, like an SVQ, also counts as CPL.

Other registered workers, like nurses, teachers and doctors also have to demonstrate how they are developing their knowledge and skills throughout their careers.

If you start work and need to register with the SSSC we will tell you how many hours of CPL you will need to record. The required hours will be a minimum and you may wish to do a lot more. Remember, if you start a role and do not need to register with the SSSC you still have access to all of our learning resources to help you develop.

There are three SSSC services described below which can help you with CPL. The good news is that they are all completely free, and you can use them now to help you start your career.

Whatever your role and level of experience, we have apps and resources on our Learning Zone to help you develop your knowledge and skills.

Why not try some of these popular resources?

Changing Times, Changing Perspectives

Follow the story of Irene Wilson who is living with a diagnosis of dementia.

Learning to Learn

A series of short videos with hints and tips about learning.

Child development

An easy reference to information about how to get it right for every child.

BeMe 360° video experiences

Experience what it’s like to be supported in these immersive scenarios.

Open Badges are digital certificates recognising learning and achievement. If you can demonstrate that you’ve learned from materials produced by the SSSC you can earn an Open Badge.

Play the video below to learn about Open Badges.

If you want to create an account visit the Open Badges login page.

If you become registered with the SSSC, badges that include reflective accounts can contribute towards your Continuous Professional Learning (CPL).

MyLearning is a free, smartphone-based app to help you quickly and conveniently log learning activities wherever and whenever they take place.

Play the short video below to find out how MyLearning can be used to support Continuous Professional Learning (CPL). An audio described MyLearning video is also available.

Across these resources we’ve highlighted opportunities to take notes in MyLearning. You can also click on the button at the bottom-right of the screen anytime to open up some information.

MyLearning allows social service workers to:

• set learning targets and view your progress towards them
• record learning logs in your MyLearning journal
• tag your learning logs so you can easily find them later, to help develop your thinking and reflections
• use your learning logs as evidence towards Open Badges
• share your learning logs with others, such as your manager or a potential employer.

If you want more details about this topic you can visit the Continuous Professional Learning page on the SSSC website.