Health and social care

About our health and social care programmes

Employment and progression routes for health and social care students are numerous. You could go on to work in childcare, teaching, nursing, midwifery, community work, counselling, occupational therapy, criminology, social work, palliative care, and care for the elderly, to name just a few.

We expect you to take part in regular work experience placements throughout your programme. This will make you more employable, put you ahead of the competition when applying to university and, ultimately, make for a better health and social care professional.

We work closely with the NHS in our local areas, as well as with the local authorities, care providers and day-care centres. This enables students to experience the full breadth of health and social care and begin to develop expertise in specialist areas.

On our social care programmes, students will be open to career opportunities with social care partners. For those students who join our clinical programmes with industry placements, there are guaranteed job opportunities with the following NHS Foundation Trust partners: Frimley Health, Oxford Health, Oxford University Hospitals and Royal Berkshire.

What is a career pathway?

Education takes time and money. By giving you a clear view of what qualifications you need to get the job and the salary that you want, we take the stress out of learning.

Our career pathway maps show you the entry requirements for each qualification and how long they take to achieve. With each new qualification, you have the option to continue studying at the next level or explore your employment options with a guide to the jobs and salaries you can expect at that stage. Each step of the way, our career advisors are there to help you make the right choice for you.

By focusing on your future employability and opportunities, we hope to inspire in you the drive to succeed and make the most of your investment in education. 95% of students that completed a course with us progressed directly into employment or onto higher-level learning such as a higher-level course, apprenticeship or university study.*
*AL destination data for 16-19 year olds

While the right qualifications can get you a job interview, it’s the attributes that we teach alongside your chosen programme that will get you the job. Click here to find out more about our Attributes and Learning Philosophy.

What could my future job look like?

Here are some examples of the tasks that you may be carrying out:

• Care escort: help transport elderly or vulnerable patients in a safe manner
• Phlebotomist: collect patients' samples (blood, urine, etc.) and send these securely to the lab, so they can be tested
• Residential care manager: manage a care home offering services to its residents, including staff training, compliance with standards, budget management and monitoring processes to ensure a consistent experience for residents
• Speech therapist: diagnose and treat speech and language disorders affecting a wide range of customers

The health and social care industry

We offer a choice of two pathways: clinical or social care. Both have significant industry placements in local clinical or social care settings with our network of partners.

The demand for trained care professionals across the UK is enormous, and the opportunity to walk straight into a wellpaid job on completion of your studies with us is extremely high.

In clinical roles, you could be working in local GP surgeries, pharmacies or hospitals. In social care roles, however, you may be working in your local community, from someone’s home or in care homes, among other places. There are lots of different roles in health and social care depending on what you want to do, who you want to work with, and where you would like to work.

Search our health and social care programmes

Industry partnerships

We work in close partnership with the NHS in Berkshire and Oxfordshire, the local authorities, care providers and day care centres, as well as charities such as RESPONSE, which specialises in mental health provision. RESPONSE will be creating work placements, delivering mental health awareness training and providing career opportunities to students when they qualify.