More on this subject

A career or further study in the areas covered Society, Health and Development sectors is both really rewarding, and full of opportunities. The Diploma helps to prepare you for them by giving you the skills and experience you need to succeed. What’s different about the Diploma is that organisations in the sectors are investing their time to help you do this.

This is why you’ll be learning everything about the sectors from the people who know, and the skills you need to succeed in it. What the sectors can offer keen young people in return is a chance to help others, make a difference and get really great rewards.

So, what’s it really like?

Everybody benefits from the services that the society, health and development sectors provide. It’s a vast area, with thousands of different types of jobs and specialist areas.

Community justice is all about community safety, reducing crime and reoffending. As you can imagine, it’s a big area to try and describe. There are the crime and disorder reduction partnerships, youth offending teams, community policing, victim support and forensic science, to name a few you could work in.

Workers in healthcare look after the well-being of people. As well as caring for those who are ill, they also investigate new and better treatments, and help people lead healthier lifestyles. Nearly 3 million people do these jobs, most of them for The National Health Service (NHS). Other healthcare employers include independent, third sector organisations, local authorities.

The children and young people’s workforce includes out of school clubs, youth work, Connexions, learning mentors, educational psychologists, teachers and learning support, early years care, learning and development amongst others.

Adult social care is about helping people to regain and maintain independent living wherever possible. It includes assessing the needs of individuals to help them remain in their own home.

It’s a huge sector to get to grips with, but you should have a better idea of it now, whether you’re thinking of working in it or studying more about it. By doing the Diploma in Society, Health and Development you’ll get the chance to do just that: Explore everything.

Useful links

Try the sector skills council websites for Adult Social Care, Health, Justice, CWDC and SkillsActive. There’s lots of information about the Diploma and different roles and careers you can do. Also, Connexions has plenty of job role descriptions that you can read to get a better idea of what’s involved.