How To Write A Personal Statement To Get A Social Care Job When You’ve Got No Experience

If you’re applying for your first job in social care and don’t know where to start, this article will help. We break down the three essential parts of a personal statement and explain how the experience you do have can be made relevant.

'Think of your personal statement as your presentation to the potential employer.'

Writing a great personal statement is an art, and one that takes a commitment of time and effort to achieve.

Even if you’ve never worked in social care before, that doesn’t mean you have no experience.

Experience comes in all shapes and sizes so writing a personal statement to get your first job in social care is about drawing on the experience you do have, rather than that which you feel you lack.

By breaking down the process into these three areas, you can put together a personal statement that truly reflects who you are and why you’d be great at this job.

Who you are and why you want this role

Think of your personal statement as your presentation to the potential employer.

You should tell them about yourself, why you’re the ideal candidate for their job and give evidence of your skills.

In order to write this so it talks directly to the recruiter about their job and how well you meet their requirements, you will need the person specification and job description for the vacancy as a reference.

The first few lines of this section should introduce you as a person and give a short summary of where you are at the moment.It’s during this introduction they decide whether or not to read it or move on to the next candidate.

It sounds harsh, but most recruiters are time-poor so it’s essential to grab their attention in the opening sentences.

Go on to talk about why you want this role, summarise your interest in the role, and how you fit the requirements of the person specification.

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Skills and personality

Before you write this section, look back at everything you’ve done in your life.

You will have gained skills and experience from your jobs and school that you might not have ever thought about before.

In order to identify skills you didn’t think you had achieved, look back on different situations and analyse the contribution you made.

For example, say you used to volunteer to look after an elderly relative in their own home by helping them get dressed and undertake every day tasks such as washing up or cooking.

From this experience you will have learnt how to communicate in a respectful way with an individual that is relying on your assistance in order to maintain their independence and wellbeing, to maintain their dignity throughout, and to carry out person-centered care.

You may not have realised you were doing it, but by simply taking into account the needs of that person and their personal preferences, you are beginning to provide person-centered care.

Those are key skills when working in social care, and excellent communication skills are vital in every social care job.

Use the person specification to write a list of the skills deemed essential for the role, and those that are desirable. Then write an example of a time when you demonstrated each skill in a different environment, preferably using some examples from education, employment and voluntary work.

For example, if the person specification calls for someone who can work well in a team with good communication skills and commitment, you need to look back on all the experience you do have and draw out an example that shows how well you worked within a team, how your excellent communication skills contributed to you performance, and your commitment to see that situation through to conclusion.

Be succinct.

How you expect the role to develop, and your ambitions for the future

Now the recruiter is familiar with who you are and what experience you have, you can talk a little about what you expect from the role, how it will help you develop and what you anticipate going on to do in the future.

This section is not just to gain a clearer picture of your ambitions, but also to see how committed you are to working in social care.

In order to show that you are truly committed to a career in social care, you should have an idea of how the experience you will gain should you be offered the job can influence your social care career.

You could go on to be a senior care assistant, support worker or a domiciliary team leader.

You could also go on to university to train to become a registered nurse or social worker.

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After this blog post...

Once you've used our guide and applied for your job and have (hopefully) got to the interview stage, I bet you'll be worrying about what to say in your interview, right?

Well, we've got a blog post on interview tips for social workers. Using the knowledge you now have on applying for social work jobs with no experience, you can apply these to your interview, too.

You can also look at how to perfect your CV to really ensure you impress your future employer. Here's how to write a CV as a social worker.

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