Why Become a Community Support Worker?
By
May 3, 2019
4 min
In This Article
In order to be a successful community support worker, it’s important to have a passion for helping people. If you love helping people, have strong interpersonal communication skills, and strong empathy, a career as a community support worker may be great for you. So, why become a community support worker? Below, we outline the top reasons why you should consider a career in this extremely rewarding field.
- Work Environment Range
- Flexible Schedule
- Long-term Career Stability
- Affordable and Short Education
- Personal Satisfaction in Helping Others
- Patient-Oriented
- Salary Benefits
Work Environment Range
When it comes to where you can work with a community support worker diploma, the opportunities and options are endless. Community support workers can choose to work where their interests and passions lie. There are many different work settings to choose from, including but not limited to, nursing homes, retirement homes, youth centres, women’s shelters, agencies, and private home care.
Flexible Schedule
If you are someone who isn’t interested in a typical weekday 9-5 work schedule, a career as a community support worker may be right for you. Depending on your place of work and your role, when you have clients, they will need your help every single day, year round. This may mean evening and weekend shifts. Now, of course, these types of jobs involve shift work and you can adjust and can typically work around a schedule that works best for you. On the other hand, If you are interested in 9-5, you have the opportunity to find work within that too. As you can tell, it’s an incredibly flexible career field to be in.
Long-term career stability
The support and human services field is one of those industries that will always be in demand. As long as people are around, there will always be need for support. Depending on where you find work, you will be able to grow within the company or with your specific clients. It’s also important to note that many personal support workers do begin their careers casually or with part-time work before landing a full-time role.
Affordable and short education
Unlike other careers in the medical field, becoming a community support worker does not take as long or cost nearly as much money. If you’re wondering how long it takes to become a community support worker it typically takes between 44 and 47 weeks (under a year) including a practical work component. This may be especially appealing if you are someone who wants to work in the health and wellness field but does not want to spend years and years in school. Graduates of a community support program are typically set up with resources to help them find immediate work upon graduation.
Personal satisfaction in helping others
As a community support worker, your main goal is to help others who are in need. Not only do you assist your clients, but you also help them develop skill sets and coping mechanisms to help them gain independence and control in their lives. This is an extremely rewarding an d gratifying aspect of the job. As a community support worker, you will play a large role in restoring the health, dignity, and happiness of your client and while tough, is a rewarding and beautiful thing to go to work for each day.
Patient-oriented
One aspect of having a career as a community support worker is that you will be working with people every single day. This can be an extremely rewarding aspect of the job – seeing your client’s day to day and feeling accomplished after your work. Patient interactions can give you a sense of fulfillment and joy. As a community support worker, no two days are the same. A career as a community support worker is anything but isolating and is an excellent career for those looking for human interaction and relationships.
Salary Benefits
Of course, before entering any field, it’s important to know how much you could make. As a community support worker the salaries do vary depending on many things such as what type of company you are working for, whether you are full-time or part-time, the province, among other factors. To have a general number, according to jobbank.gc.ca, the average salary for a community support worker is between $30,305 and $42,306 a year.
Hopefully the above points have given more insight on whether a career as a community support worker is right for you. Robertson offers a Community Support Worker Diploma Program both online and at the Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary campuses. It is a flexible and great option to launch your career in the health and wellness industry in under a year. Reach out to a Student Admissions Advisor today for more information.
