From Care Assistant to Care Office Apprentice

Ever thought about the different career paths and progression opportunities that might be open to you in the care industry? There are more than you might think!

Here, we share the story of Betty, who tells us how she went from care assistant to care office apprentice in just five months – and has since risen all the way to deputy manager!

“My journey from care assistant to care office apprentice and beyond”

“I started in care just three years ago when I came from Mexico City to live in the UK. In Mexico I was working as a psychotherapist and I wanted to stay helping people to improve their lives. I saw an opportunity was available at Bluebird Care as a Care Assistant and I thought I would like it.

“I arrived here in Bournemouth and three days later I was taking the training to be a care assistant. One week after that I was doing care visits! It was really quick and I have to say I loved it.

“At the beginning it was a little difficult because it was a culture shock being in a new country, and because I hadn’t worked in care before. But after a couple of weeks it felt natural. The main thing of caring for people came quite easy for me to do.

Life as a care assistant

“My favourite part of being a care assistant was helping people. They would tell me about what they used to do and I loved asking questions about their past life, what they did when they were younger. I also loved preparing their lunch and making it look appetising. Just seeing their smiles at how good it looked!

“I started in September 2019 and in February 2020 there was an opportunity to become care coordinator so I applied to the job – and to my surprise, I got it! So in five months I had gone from being a care assistant to an office apprentice.

Life as a care coordinator

“Despite moving away from seeing customers every day I didn’t have any misgivings about the office-based role because as a coordinator I knew I could book myself to do customer visits occasionally. Even though I was in the office role I was still going out at weekends, helping out. It was the best of both worlds.

“My main responsibility as a care coordinator was to do the care schedule for every care assistant, organising the rotas and booking visits for every customer. That meant thinking about the customer’s needs and matching them to the right customers, trying to make sure that a small group of care assistants were matched with the same customers most of the time. It allowed us to provided good continuity of care, and allowed the care assistants to build that relationship with their customers, as well as making sure they didn’t have to travel to far from where they were based.

“For me the most satisfying thing about the care coordinator role was knowing I had a really big influence on making everyone happy, every day and every week. It meant the care assistants would be able to get to know their customers better and would know exactly how customers like things to be done, and will be able to identify if something changes with the customer. It was important to make sure we provided the best quality of care possible.

“Moving into the office role also had another benefit in that it allowed me to build closer relationships with our care staff. Before that I didn’t know them so well because I was out on care calls myself, but when I started working as a coordinator I became in constant contact with our care assistants and for me it was really satisfying hearing that they were really happy with their schedule and hearing about their working days with customers. Or receiving emails from family members saying they were very happy with the care assistant and would like to see them every lunch for example, and being able in my role to coordinate the care assistant’s time to make sure that happened.

From care coordinator to deputy manager

“After the care coordinator role, I progressed again to deputy manager in July 2021, in the middle of the pandemic. So, for me, it really shows that care assistant progression paths are there if you want them, and that working in Bluebird Care there are many opportunities to grow and move forward in your career.

“I definitely wouldn’t say it was easy for me, but if you are very committed and you try your hardest every day, it’s always possible. The main thing is to care for what you’re doing very deeply and try to make it the best you can. If you are really involved and really engaged and you want to progress it’s possible to go from care assistant to almost anything really. We have examples of people who started as care assistants and are now supervisors or coordinators or apprentices. So, I think the key is to be very committed, responsible – and, above all, caring.”

Are you curious about a career in care?

As Betty’s story shows, in a role at Bluebird Care you can go from care assistant to care office apprentice or anything else you want to be.

Read the blog posts below for more of an idea about life as a care assistant with us, and visit our careers site to see our Bournemouth and Poole care assistant roles.

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