1. Life experience counts.
Social care professionals can encounter some fairly horrendous situations in the line of their work, including cases of child abuse and neglect. Ian Riley, assistant manager of Lerryn House in Stockport, a residential home offering long-term placements to looked-after children, says it's therefore useful to have "lots of life experience" and the ability to promote young people's welfare.
"It is what helps you deal with abuse and understand where it is coming from," he says.
Riley was originally taken on as a care worker by care home provider the Together Trust after being made redundant as an engineer. "I didn't have any qualifications but I had experience as a youth worker," he says.
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