Social work and counselling services... in detail

What does it involve?

This area of work is usually quite challenging because it involves dealing with many different types of people. You may be caring for children or the elderly, counselling and advising people who need help or organising charity fundraising.

Whether you are a child minder, a social worker, psychologist or probation officer - you may find yourself working evenings or weekends and you could occasionally find yourself in tricky situations. Some jobs, such as personal adviser, youth or social worker are office-based but you might spend a lot of your time out on visits to people's homes or in schools or youth centres. Other jobs may be based in children's nurseries or schools, (like a play worker or nursery nurse) or residential homes and could be physically demanding.

This type of work, however, can be very rewarding. You may be helping people to make life-changing decisions or you could be helping to raise money that will make a real difference in peoples' lives. But whatever job you do, you will need to have a responsible attitude and be able to get on with all sorts of people.

How much will I get paid?

What's happening in the industry?

Over 1.8 million people work in the social care sector in the UK. This includes social workers, childcare assistants, youth workers and occupational therapists.

This is a growing sector for several reasons: people are living beyond retirement for longer, needing more care; children’s services and care is being given a high priority; more healthcare is being delivered in the community.

Recently, the government has been working to improve the qualifications of some of the people who work in this sector. This means new ways of training in social work and raising the qualifications of childcare staff (for example introducing the new role of early years professional).

Care workers and care assistants are the biggest group of workers in this field but there are serious skills shortages and a high turnover of staff which means that people are leaving their jobs all the time. More workers are needed in this job area as people are living longer after retirement and need care to an older age.

There is also a high turnover of staff amongst nursery workers due to low pay and low job satisfaction. Hopefully this will change with the new qualifications needed to work with young children. At the moment, there's a shortage of male child minders.

The voluntary or charity sector has also grown a lot over the last 10 years. Some staff are volunteers but around 600,000 workers in this sector are paid. Most jobs in the voluntary sector are in the areas of social care, housing, health care and education. There is strong competition for jobs in the well-known charities but people with skills and experience are always needed - especially for jobs such as social worker, development worker and fundraiser.

Pay rates in this sector are low compared to the rest of Europe.

What's happening locally?

Nottinghamshire info

How to get into this type of work

Your Personal Adviser will be able to discuss your options with you.

School or college - study for GCSEs, a diploma, AS / A levels, NVQs or other vocational qualifications that could lead to a job, an Apprenticeship, further qualifications or even a degree.

e2e (Entry to Employment) - if you’re not sure if you’re suited to this job you might be able to get some work experience through e2e. It can also give you extra support to gain the right qualifications, get onto a training programme or get a job.

Apprenticeship - train ‘on-the-job’ with a wage or allowance. For the latest Apprenticeship vacancies in Nottinghamshire go to Vacancies Online.

Work or work with training.

Which skills?

Communication
Team work
Leadership

Which qualities?

Responsible and caring
Like working with people

What else can I do?

Get some work experience.
Brush up on some of your skills such as ICT or customer care.
Read the CODES leaflets A helping hand... (V/S), Caring work (V 01), Working with children (V 02), Jobs with charities (V 08) and other titles in this section. You can find these in your school Connexions library or nearest Connexions centre.
Talk to your Personal Adviser.

Useful links

For courses go to MyChoiceNotts

For job and training vacancies go to Vacancies Online

For more job info go to Jobs4U

For more useful links go to Fetch!