The industry today — where assistants work and what is in demand?

Few skilled educations have as broad a job field as this. As a social and health assistant you can work in the municipality, in the region, and in private services – and because the population lives longer, the need for skilled hands and minds in care and treatment is large and growing. This gives a job security that many other trades can only dream about.

§Where do you work?

• 01Somatic hospitals — in departments with nurses and doctors
• 02Care homes and home care in the municipality
• 03Psychiatry – both regional treatment psychiatry and municipal social psychiatry
• 04Rehabilitation and re-training
• 05Residences and specialized offers
• 06The acute and outreach area e.g. emergency functions in the municipality

§Demand and job security

There is a shortage of social and health care personnel throughout the country and forecasts indicate that the need will grow as there are more elderly. For you that means unemployment among newly trained is low and that you often can choose between several job types and geographic areas. It is an education that really leads to a job.

§Trends that shape the profession

The health service is moving several tasks closer to the citizen in these years – what is called the close health service. Patients are discharged earlier from the hospital and continue treatment at home or in the care center. This gives assistants more independent responsibility and more complex tasks than before. At the same time, welfare technology and digital documentation take up more space, so being able to work with systems and tools becomes a larger part of the trade.

It requires you to keep learning but it also makes the trade more versatile: you can choose to specialize where it interests you most — for example dementia psychiatry palliative or acute work.

“It is not a question of whether you are needed — but where you prefer to make a difference.”