SKILLS FOR CARE

Company Profile

About Skills for Care

Skills for Care helps create a well-led, skilled and valued adult social care workforce.

Delivered in partnership with the NHS Leadership Academy and the Department of Health and Social Care, our one-year Graduate Management programme gives ambitious graduates the opportunity to accelerate their career and gain invaluable experience with forward-thinking health and social care employers.

Find out more

About Our Graduate Management Programme

During the programme, you’ll have access to health and social care professionals to support your development. Skills for Care locality managers can help you to develop your role, your understanding of the sector and your leadership skills.

We recruit from all over the UK and place graduates across England.

Our one-year programme can launch and enhance your career within a health and social care orientated setting. We’re looking for bright, eager graduates with a degree at 2:2 or above in any subject.

You should have a strong desire to work alongside others and be able to think and contribute strategically. Your positive outlook will help others live life to their fullest potential.

What’s involved?

Working within a quality health and social care organisation, including a health orientated secondment.
A bursary payment of £20,000.
Attaining a leadership and management qualification, plus a project management accreditation.
Leadership development through coaching, supervision and peer support.

Hear from our graduates

“To me, the whole point of joining a sector like health and social care is rooted in wanting to do something above the ordinary with your career.”
Daniel Little

“The graduate programme has allowed me to develop as a leader and gain opportunities to influence and make a difference in health and social care.”
Alice Owen

More about SKILLS FOR CARE

SKILLS FOR CARE – CASE STUDY 2

SKILLS FOR CARE – CASE STUDY 1

Graduate Daniel Little talks about how to make the most of the Skills for Care Graduate Management programme

Daniel Little graduated from Skills for Care’s Graduate Management programme in January 2019 and was part of the seventh cohort of ambitious and driven graduates looking for a career in health and social care. He talks about his experience and how you should make the most of the connections you make.

Everyone on the programme will have a unique experience with their cohort, and everyone will be looking for something different. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the other graduates, but now that my placement is over, I can look back at my time and safely say I was not disappointed and valued their company.

They’ve provided many laughs along the way, and I’ve made some strong friendships. It’s a strange relationship only seeing each other once a month, then having to spend all day in a professional setting. You discuss your work and the big issues surrounding the health and wellbeing of the nation, and then you go out for several pints in London. This social time is a necessity of networking and building bonds that can support you during this journey. Honestly, it’s not all about the drinking!

Sometimes, you’ve got a great idea that you think is going to be the answer to the country’s health and social care woes, sometimes you just fancy a rant about what’s going on at your placement, and sometimes, and this is important: you just want to take your mind off work for a while. Your own health and wellbeing is a top priority.

The great thing about the programme is that it attracts so many varied people from all backgrounds and walks of life; there will be someone in your network suited to any mood you’re in and to lift you when you’re feeling down. I urge everyone to forge as many friendships as possible on this programme, because talking to someone else who’s in the same situation has proven to be really helpful.

Naturally, some of you will get more out of your placement location than others. For me, it was easy to meet up with people based in and around London, but those from further afield, we only met on Skills for Care activity days. The important thing to remember is to make the network what you want it to be – these people are likely to all be very different to you with different strengths and ideas, which is great. Who knows, some of these people may be running health and social care services in the future and be in key government positions.

Leadership and management training will teach you that every connection is an opportunity to make a difference, and there will be fewer professional environments safer than your graduate programme to make these valuable contacts. Make the most of every opportunity, be sure to keep an open mind and who knows where the programme could take you – good luck everyone!