Pathways into a career in Health and Social Care Dumfries and Galloway
A career in Health or Social Care can be one of the most rewarding and varied careers in the world with every day bringing new challenges, inspiring moments and something to learn.
The NHS and the Care Sector in the UK are renowned across the world as being educators as well as employers. This is true of the H&SC partners in Dumfries and Galloway, who offer over 350 different roles within the sector sector all offering on the job training and either the opportunity to do further qualifications or online learning. We believe in developing our staff and many of our managers started their careers in entry level roles working their way up.
Working in Health and Social Care is not just a job it’s a career. If you are not sure where to start then this is a great page to help you identify some entry points into our roles.
The Detail
The partnership are creating a new programme to go into primary schools to look at the different types of career within health and care
The Benefits
As our population lives longer we would need every school age child to work in Care to cover the needs of the community in the future.
It is important we inspire students from an early age to consider a career in care.
How to Apply
No Application process
The Health Ambassadors group led by the NHS Workforce Sustainability team will deliver the programme in Schools from Mar 2024
The Programmes
Inspiring Futures – The partnership offer students who are transitioning into S4 a chance to come and see health and care professionals and educators at the Inspiring Futures event every June.
Work Experience #Healthandcareweek. Every September the partners run a work experience programme that students aged 15+ can apply for through a competitive application process.
The Benefits
The benefits for students are that they can get to explore and learn more about careers with us before applying the following year for some more hands on practical work experience. We want to support students make the right choice even if realising that health and care is not right for them.
How to Apply
Please visit the relevant pages on this site to find out more
The Options
National and Higher grades
Quite a few careers in the NHS and Care particularly those starting at Band 5/ equivalent or above will require students to stay on at school or college and attain a certain grade at these qualifications.
You can find out the entry level requirements for your choose course at NHS Scotland Careers
In Education Apprenticeships
Healthcare Pathway Pilot is a new apprenticeship to support those wishing to explore entry level roles in health and care. The course is not lined to any higher education courses at this stage however local Health and Care employers as part of the course offer work placements and guaranteed interviews.
The programme will gain you 24 SCQF points and a good understanding of working in our sector.
The Options
Employability Courses
Employability courses are an excellent way of gaining skills and confidence as well as some practical experience to work in a variety of sectors.
Programmes that will give you some exposure to health or care setting s are
- Lets get Employed ran by Lets Get Sporty
- Project Search ran by D&G College
- Pathway to Employment – D&G College Stranraer Campus
Health and Care partners are working with Dumfries and Galloway college to explore whether a bespoke employability course to prepare people into to step into entry level roles such as support worker, cleaning, domestics.
We would love to hear from you if you feel this is needed by completing a quick survey
Direct into work
Many of the entry level jobs do not require formal experience or qualifications however employers will still look for you to demonstrate you have the enthusiasm and the willingness to continue learning key skills for the role and that you can give examples of times you have shown the values we expect our staff to show.
Shared values across our organisations are
- Compassion and kindness
- Respect and Dignity
- Teamwork
- Openness and Honesty
- Showing excellence
The Options
Dumfries and Galloway College
D&G college is our local further education provider offering a range of courses to support individuals careers into health and care settings.
Many of the courses provided are done whilst in employment however many can be applied to directly at the college as full or part time courses.
Whether you wish to pursue a career as a chef, in business admin or as a support worker further education courses are a great way to gain vocational and academic experience.
The Options
University develops essential skills such as organisation, time management, communication, leadership and problem solving skills which many management level or highly skilled clinical roles require.
Graduate Programme
Periodically Health and Care organisations will run graduate programmes which can be found on the Graduate Careers Advantage Scotland website
Specific clinical training/courses such as Social Work, Nursing, Midwifery, Paramedics Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Biomedical Science (registration route) and medical school can all be done via universities in Scotland
Students can attend the Inspiring futures event to understand which universities we host placements for across our organisations for those who wish to study and live at home.
The Options
Once in employment there are a number of additional training and qualifications employees can undertake some are essential for the role where others can be applied for if relevant to the role.
If working in Care, employees are required to become registered with the SSSC which requires employees to gain SVQ level 6 and SVQ Level & in Social Services and Healthcare.
These courses are ran by a number of local training providers and the college and are arranged by your employer.
For those individuals wanting to explore careers in management, our local Health and Care partners are all committed to developing their staff and encourage staff where applicable to attended leadership programmes aimed at developing future and existing managers.
Health Ambassadors
If you an employee of Health and Social Care and want to work with us to Inspire our youth then just click below
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Support Worker to CEO is possible!
