Specialties and career paths in SOSU trade

When you are done as a social and health worker many paths open. The trade is in demand across the country and because the population is aging there will be need for skilled hands and warm hearts in elderly and health care for many years to come. You can choose to stay in the helper job you can specialize and you can build on your training.

As a social and health helper you can work in many different places. The classic route is municipal home care where you visit citizens' own homes and nursing homes where citizens live permanently. You can also work in assisted living for the elderly in activity services and in some cases within disability and psychiatry. Each place has its own rhythm and its own citizens.

• 01Home care in citizens' own homes.
• 02Care homes and nursing homes.
• 03Activity and day activities for the elderly.
• 04Parts of the disability and social psychiatry field.

One of the most obvious paths is to build further on your training and become a social and health assistant. The assistant has broader responsibilities, particularly in nursing, medication handling and treatment, and can work in many places — including hospitals, psychiatric services and municipal nursing. The helper qualification is a pathway qualification, and the experience you gain as a helper is a strong foundation.

As a social and health assistant you can in some cases study further to for example become a nurse or other health professions through the right combination of education and entry requirements. Many thus start as helpers and end up somewhere completely different in healthcare several years later. The trade is a stepping stone not a ceiling.

Within the care assistant role you can also specialize professionally. The dementia field is a large area with growing need, and many further train in caring for and communicating with people with dementia. Others focus on palliative care – care for the dying and their relatives – or on rehabilitation, mobility or hygiene. Such skills make you an even more valued colleague.

Regardless of which path you choose, it is the same basic qualities that make you a good professional: empathy, patience, professional curiosity and the ability to collaborate. Technical skills can be learned, but the willingness to see and understand another person is the heart of the trade. If you choose the SOSU trade, you choose a job where you make a concrete difference for another person every day.

“Social and health helper is not an endpoint but a beginning – a profession that can be either a lifetime career and a stepping stone to the entire health system.”