Social Care Career Options tool
What is the Social Care Career Options tool?
The Social Care Career Options tool is an online tool designed to support people who are looking to learn more about working in the Scottish Social Care sector. This will be aimed both at those who are looking to progress their existing career, and those who are completely new to the sector. The site will feature helpful information about over 70 job roles in the sector, as well as inspiring stories from social care workers. We are also building an AI chatbot which will be able to provide tailored advice and responses to users’ queries about work in the social care sector.
Why have we created the Social Care Career Options tool?
Background
Social care is a hugely diverse sector that gives workers the opportunity to make a positive difference in the lives of other. Roles can be varied and flexible and can support to workers to develop a range of skills and qualifications. The social service workforce makes up 7.8% of all Scottish employment and there is a role suited for almost everyone.
However, evidence suggests that whether you already work in social care or are looking to join, the information currently available is hard to navigate and doesn’t fully describe all there is to offer. Many people are unaware of the diversity of roles in the sector, or don’t know that they may already have many of the skills required to excel in these roles.
Solution
NHS Education for Scotland (NES) Social Care Directorate and the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) and have been working with partners to deliver an online tool to address these issues.
The aim of this tool is to support more people to join and stay in the social care sector.
The tool will feature dedicated pages for over 70 roles across adult and children’s social care in Scotland. It will also feature stories and testimonials from those already in the sector in order to showcase the positive impact that these roles can have on workers’ lives, and the lives of others.
What work has been done?
Over the past year, we’ve been working on capturing the broad range of job roles across social care and organising them into job families. We have also researched the entry requirements and job descriptions for each role and what workers will gain by way of professional development.
We’ve been working on the technical development of the tool, which has involved designing an easy-to-navigate website which is optimised for mobile use. We’ve explored many ways of presenting information using new technologies to ensure that the tool is accessible, engaging and useful.
What’s next?
The Social Care Careers Options Tool website will be launching on the 30th of April . Initially, the website will feature over 70 job roles and several testimonials, and we will continue to add more content to the site long after the launch to ensure it stays current for our users.
We will also begin testing an AI chatbot feature shortly after the launch and will provide regular updates on when this will be available.
If you would like to hear more about this project, please get in touch with us at nes.socialcare@nhs.scot
Last updated: Wednesday, April 9, 2025