Do you want to help and support people with their physical and mental wellbeing? Do you want to make a difference to the lives of people who are experiencing social and emotional problems? Do you like working with children and want to help support them emotionally as well as promote their development?
If you love working with people and are caring, calm and patient, then you might find working in the social, caring and advisory area a rewarding career.
You could be working in advisory services, childcare and education, community education, psychology and counselling, social work or social care. You might specialise in working with adults or children, or help and support people of all ages.
To see the routes to getting into each of these sectors, take a look at our Career Pathway.
You might work for:
It can be quite difficult to get a job in advisory and counselling services, although there are lots of voluntary opportunities.
Community learning and development work includes adult learning, youth work and a wide range of other community support and development jobs.
Job prospects are good in social care services, with an ageing population leading to more demand. In 2023 there were 50,410 people employed in care homes for adults. 3
Between 2023 and 2024 there were 16,390 job postings for care workers and home carers. 4
The largest three subsectors are still housing support/care at home, care homes for adults and day care of children. Collectively these account for 79% of the social services workforce. 3
The increase in free childcare hours has meant the Scottish Government has been increasing training opportunities and routes into Early Learning and Childcare. As a result 8,000 professionals have been recruited in 2023/24 taking the total workforce to over 46,000 people. 1
In 2023 there were 1,650 men in day care of children roles, accounting for around 4% of the workforce. Men in Childcare (MiC) (www.meninchildcare.co.uk) promotes training and recruitment for men in early years in an effort to increase the number of men working in the sector. 5
The Scottish Government hope to increase the childminder workforce in Scotland by 1,000 during 2024-2025 through a recruitment drive with 16 local authorities. A £1m funding scheme will offer £750 start up grants for new childminding businesses, as well as support and training to encourage people into the business. Find out more at childminding.org/getstarted. 2
Housing associations and cooperatives are major Scottish employers, employing 13,000 people across 133 housing associations and cooperatives. They provide around 286,000 homes to 1.2 million tenants who live in homes provided by social landlords.6
The Scottish Social Services Council website has a section called ‘Careers and Education’, with lots of resources, including downloadable careers leaflets.
The Sector Skills Council, Skills for Care and Development, has the A Question of Care website with information on careers in care.
1 Early years workforce including childminders, Scottish Government (July 2025)
2 Recruiting and retaining childminders, Scottish Government (July 2025)
3 Report on 2023 Workforce Data, Scottish Social Services Council (August 2024)
4 Sectoral Skills Assessment: Social Care, Skills Development Scotland (October 2024)
5 Men in childcare funding, Scottish Government (July 2025)
6 Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (July 2025)
