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Health and social care is always changing to meet the needs of our population and supporting people living longer with often complex conditions. This means that organisations are working in new ways, across traditional boundaries, creating lots of new and exciting job roles.
Career Development is about improving your skills, and advancing along a career path to help you reach your goals. It is often a lifelong process of learning and decision-making that brings you closer to your ideal job, skillset, and lifestyle.
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Career Progression
Progression can be:
- sideways into a different type of job which could involve working in a different setting or with a different group of people
- a move up into a job with more responsibility, which requires new skills, knowledge and qualifications.
Progressing to more advanced roles will require stepping up to more responsibility or achieving greater specialist knowledge and skills. For example you might be expected to implement policies and procedures, problem solve and model best practice. There are lots of ways to develop such skills and can including undertaking new managerial tasks, training and developing other staff and representing your organisation at external events and meetings. Management skills can also be developed using a formal learning programme, such as completing the Manager Induction Standards or a Level 4 Certificate in Principles of Leadership.
If you’ve progressed to a lead or advanced practitioner role, you can go further into a more advanced management or professional role with greater responsibility, leadership or influence. These roles can be very specialised such as a social worker or occupational therapist, or involve management and being responsible for ensuring your organisation meets legal requirements, for example a registered manager or department head. These roles can often require a Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Adult Care or a professional qualification or a degree.
What is on offer?
To find out more about career development opportunities in local organisations please look at the online career resources at the links below:
Career Planning
A career plan is important as it can help you manage the direction of your career, the job skills and knowledge you may need, how you get them and how you can secure your dream job.
We would encourage you to discuss your career development with your manager during your one to one, appraisal or talent conversation. Each organisation will have a training and eduction or learning and development department who will be able to help with information, advice and application support for any courses you want to apply for.