Let's encourage young people to consider a career in social care
Research suggests that social care is seen as a poor career choice, especially among young people. At SCA Group social enterprise we believe young people have to be encouraged into social care if the skills shortages of the future are to be tackled. Social care also has to be seen as a valuable career choice, with rewards, satisfaction and progression.
We have recently piloted a pre-apprenticeship scheme for Neets (not in education, employment or training), young people aged 16-18 who had not previously had positive experiences at school. Our project involved looking at how we could engage with young people interested in a career in care and support them through the initial stages. The aim was to build their confidence so they could go on to apprenticeships within SCA Care.
During the 12-week programme the young people worked on the Skills for Care common induction standards, as well as on their self-esteem, personal presentation, assertiveness, numeracy and literacy. They learned about employment rights and responsibilities as well as about dignity in care. They also completed seven weeks of work experience in SCA Care settings, linked to a personal mentor. They undertook all tasks alongside their mentor and completed a full range of care tasks on their own, except for administering medication, moving and handling, and personal care.
The project was immensely rewarding, though there were some challenges. DBS checks, for example, took a long time to complete as many of the young people did not have identity documents. This was in part due to their age or the fragmentation of family relationships.
Fostering relationships should have been one of the major challenges. But all the mentors were enthusiastic volunteers, and all the young people had engaged with self-esteem-raising activities prior to the work experience, so they all got on amazingly well. Raising the young people's aspirations and sense of achievement, autonomy and self-worth was the cornerstone of all that we did. By doing this, most of the personality clashes and difficulties they had experienced in other learning environments were avoided.
We warned mentors that having a mentee would initially make their jobs harder but that, over time, the investment would pay off. This helped to manage mentors' expectations. Mentors actually found that they had an engaged, enthusiastic helpmate who in some ways made the job more fun.
The experience has been life-changing for SCA, our young people, and for the mentors. We have diversified our workforce and improved interaction between different generations. We have been able to train and support staff to become mentors so they could share their skills and experience with a new generation of carers.
The relationship between mentors and trainees has been fantastic. Support has continued from the mentors even though the 12-week project has officially finished. Many of the mentors now want to go on to further training to increase their own skills and knowledge.
The young people have become more employable, have consolidated their interest in care, and have become more confident, resilient and self aware. We feel we have challenged some of the myths about young people and care. Our young people were not unreliable, uncaring or belligerent, but proved to be excellent role models for their generation. Many of them had been living independently, were young carers, or had coped with and survived abuse, abandonment and personal tragedy. They were voluntarily signing up to 12 weeks of unpaid work and were keen and committed.
Now that we can recruit school leavers, we need to be getting into schools and introducing them to the full range of care careers. As employers, we need to support new young care workers through effective mentoring, apprenticeships and extra supervision to help them to gain confidence, resilience and feelings of self-worth.
All of this extra support can be offered through the lower wage banding for apprentices, by starting trainees on less money, and increasing their salary as they develop independence and require less support.
Here at SCA we value our members of staff: they really do improve people's lives. We have established a positive foundation that we can build on for bringing more young people into care, but have learned that it requires good planning and excellent support.
Paula Bennetts is training manager for the award-winning SCA Quinn training centre, part of SCA Group social enterprise.
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