Resources to help you explore

Lots of resources and guidance are available to support you to explore potential roles and determine which you are suitable for.

Information and guidance

Resources to help you get started on your journey:

• Working in health
• Who works for the NHS?
• Exploring your options
• Planning your career

Exploring roles and careers

Resources to help you find out more about specific roles:

• Health careers – explore roles
• 350 careers, One NHS, Your Future
• Step into the NHS Careers A-Z
• Skills for Care: Job roles in social care
• National Careers Service: Healthcare and Social Care

Healthcare Support Workers / Healthcare Assistants

Resources to give you an overview of the role of a HCSW/HCA:

• Healthcare Support Worker overview
• Healthcare Assistant overview
• Careers resource for Nursing Support Workers
• Career paths for Nursing Support Workers
• HCSW2020 Accelerated Care Certificate

Careers tests

Resources to help you assess which roles are right for you:

• Find Your Health Career
• Step into the NHS careers test
• Is adult social care for you?
• National Careers Service Skills Assessment

NHSP offer the opportunity for a career conversation with one of our trained professionals to discuss what you have learnt.

Resources to help you make a career choice

With over 350 careers available in the NHS, it can be daunting making a decision on which path to follow. The NHS has lots of useful tools and resources to help you make a career choice.

The NHS Career Management Framework breaks career planning down into four stages:

1. Self assessment – this is about discovering your values, skills and interests, to gain an understanding of what you want from work.
2. Exploring your options – this is about exploring what roles are available and narrowing down your options.
3. Decision-making – this is about evaluation your options and deciding which roles to apply for.
4. Applications and interviews – this is about how to make your application stand out and impress an interviewer.

When it comes to making a career choice, there are several exercises you can do to help make a decision:

• The values exercise helps you identify your work-related values to help you set career goals.
• The SWOT analysis helps you identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats associated with the roles you are considering.
• The life-line exercise helps you review significant decisions you have made in the past to help you make decisions about your future career.
• The factors exercise helps you compare a variety of roles you are considering and identify what factors of a job are most important to you.
• The pros and cons exercise helps you weigh up the positives and negatives of a particular job option.
• The force field exercise helps you identify the forces for and against a career option.