Campaign aims to inspire young people to take up careers in social care

Working Options in Education, the national employability and life skills charity, has launched a campaign funded by the Hallmark Foundation to inspire 14-19 year olds in Essex and East London to consider a career in social care.

The pandemic has disproportionately affected young people’s employment opportunities and the two organisations will be working to highlight care as one of the few sectors that is currently growing and set to continue.

In recent years, vacancy rates in social care have remained higher than average (7.3% in in England) with jobs hard to fill. With the UK’s ageing population, the number of adult social care jobs is likely to increase by 32% to around 2.17 million jobs by 2035.

Funding from the Hallmark Foundation will help increase awareness of the benefits young people can gain from working in the sector. Working Options in Education has been delivering a free employability and life skills programme in state schools and colleges and online for 10 years. The new campaign will add social care professionals to the charity’s network of industry volunteers, who will be briefed to inspire and motivate 14-19 year old students in Essex and East London about opportunities in this growing and critical sector.

Rachel Roxburgh, CEO at Working Options in Education explained: “Working in care is a great option for young people, with a good choice of roles and long-term prospects. Young people want meaningful work that allows them to make an impact. Social care meets this need; the work is people-facing and there are well-founded routes to senior roles.”

Stephen Burke, CEO of the Hallmark Foundation added: “With our grant of £15,000, Working Options in Education will be able to expand its successful ‘Insight from Industry’ sessions in schools and colleges in Essex and East London. They will also help us put on a national conference about the social care sector and career opportunities within it.

“Young people are increasingly looking for careers that make a difference in our society – and they can definitely do that with the wide range of opportunities working in care.”

If your school or business is interested in getting involved in this programme, then please contact [email protected].

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