Five Transferable Skills That Prove You’re Made for a Career in Care

You don’t need experience in the care sector to get a great career in care.

In fact, it’s easy to switch careers into our sector. That’s especially true if you’ve got some experience in related sectors - but even not, care providers will train you. Jobs in hospitality, retail, customer service, the charity sector, healthcare and volunteer work all bring out skills that are needed for care roles.

As for training, many roles give you opportunities to learn as you work. All you need to do, then, is identify your transferable skills and tell your prospective employer about them during a recruitment process.

With this in mind, we’ve identified the top five skills that people gain from other sectors that they can transfer to care work.

What Are Transferable Skills?

When a skill is transferable, it means you can use and develop it in one job or sector, but it will also be beneficial in another role or industry. These skills aren’t just useful in one situation but can help you in life generally and in other jobs. It’s helpful to identify them, as if you change roles or choose a new career path, those skills are still valuable.

Some transferable skills might come from other situations outside your job. For example, volunteer work, taking on responsibilities in a club or association, or fundraising for charity all require a certain approach. 

Top 5 Transferable Skills for Care Work

Changing sectors can sometimes feel daunting. Especially when you look at the job description and wonder how you’ll match up. Making the move to the care sector doesn’t need to be difficult, though. 

Below are the top five skills that will make the change to care and support work easier. We’ve explored why they’re important in care as well as how you might develop them in other sectors.

1. Problem-Solving and Staying Calm

Care work can involve thinking on your feet. You might need to respond quickly to the needs of the person you care for or support. You could also have some competing priorities, which means logical thinking and problem-solving are essential to your approach. A calm demeanour is much more reassuring for the people you support and your colleagues. 

Anyone who has worked with people will have had to deal with stressful situations and stay calm. Healthcare, retail, hospitality and customer service jobs involve situations where you’ll need to resolve issues. In those roles, no day is the same, which means you have to respond to your current circumstances. The same is true for care and support work.

Interview questions to look out for: What steps do you typically take when making a difficult decision? Describe a situation where something didn’t go according to plan. What did you do? What strategies do you use to manage pressure during busy shifts or unexpected challenges?

2. Communication

We all communicate, but knowing what good communication looks like is another matter. In a care role, you’ll need to communicate with your colleagues when handing over and with the people you support. Listening is a key part of it too, as you’ll need to understand other people’s needs. Good communication is key to building relationships, which is essential to care environments.

In retail, customer service, hospitality, the volunteer sector and healthcare, you need to communicate well. You’ll have developed that skill by listening to people, explaining things clearly and putting your thoughts down in a way that’s easy to understand. 

Interview questions to look out for: How do you ensure you’re actively listening when speaking with others? Tell me about a time you had to adapt your communication style for a specific person or situation. Can you describe a time when you had to explain something to someone? How did you make sure they understood?

3. Teamwork

Care work is collaborative. Even if it’s just you and the person you’re supporting, you’re still a team. You both need to understand what you’re trying to achieve and then work together. In care, that involves an awareness of your colleagues, the people you support and the situation. Keeping the bigger picture in sight is also key. 

Catering, retail, charity sector jobs and healthcare roles involve teamwork. In customer service, you and your customer are the team trying to work together to solve an issue. It involves communication, but it’s more than that. Think of how you use trust, transparency, respect and a clear plan to get the job done. 

Interview questions to look out for: What does being a “good team player” mean to you? How do you make sure everyone in a team feels heard and included? Have you ever had to support a colleague during a challenging time or heavy workload? What did you do?

4. Compassion, Responsibility and Patience

In care work, compassion is important. It comes along with two other essential attributes: patience and responsibility. Someone depends on you for their well-being, so having the compassion to understand that and the ability to take responsibility and not let them down is key. Not everything in care work runs smoothly, so patience is key.

Whenever you work with people, patience is required. They move at their own pace and have different ways of dealing with things. That’s something that customer service, retail and hospitality workers know well. In healthcare settings, staff have to take on significant responsibilities. Plus, in the charity and volunteer sectors, compassion helps you see things from other people’s perspective in order to help them.

Interview questions to look out for: Describe a moment when you had to put someone else’s needs before your own. What does compassion mean to you? What do you do when you're given a task you’re unfamiliar with or unsure about? Tell me about a time you had to stay calm and patient while working with someone who was frustrated or distressed.

5. Adaptability

Adaptability is the ultimate transferable skill, because it shows you can adjust to fit a new role and environment. For care roles, adaptability is crucial as it means you’re able to respond to the different needs of the people you support, even in changing circumstances. You might need to change your approach depending on someone’s mood, communication style or new tasks that arise. 

Adaptability is another skill that comes from working with people. That’s why retail, hospitality and customer service workers will have already honed it. In catering, tasks and environments can change quickly. Healthcare, charity workers and volunteers will have also had to respond to new people, emergency situations and a variety of communication styles.

Interview questions to look out for: How do you handle working with different types of people or personalities? What do you do when priorities suddenly shift and you have multiple competing demands? Tell me about a time when you had to adjust quickly to a major change at work.

So, are you ready to put those transferable skills? We think so! Social care is ready and waiting for you...