Sam: Care Assistant

As a Care Assistant I work as part of a team to provide support to residents of St. Elizabeth's Centre in their day-to-day lives.

Currently I work as a Float Care Assistant. My job involves floating around all of the bungalows supporting different clients. I have been doing this since January 2011. Before this I spent 13 months working on one particular bungalow. Another aspect of my job is working as an Acting Senior. This involves leading shifts on an as and when needed basis.

Before working at St. Elizabeth’s Centre I had been working part time jobs, since I was 15, whilst studying. These included gardening, working in a home improvements centre, working in a supermarket and being a waiter.

After I finished my A-Levels I wanted to gain some life experience throughout a gap year before going to university to study Economics. I was pushed by a close family member to apply for a job at St. Elizabeth's Centre. I never had imagined myself doing this kind of work so at first I was very hesitant to the idea. However, since I was successful in my application I have never looked back.

Within my first month of working I realised that this field of work come so naturally to me. The work ethic that I had always aspired to before working at St. Elizabeth's Centre was wearing a suit, commuting to London and competing in a dog-eat-dog business environment. Now I cannot imagine anything less fulfilling in life. Now I go home everyday knowing that I have made a difference by supporting people to live more meaningful lives. I decided to opt-out of my economics degree and look to complete a degree in the future related to this field of work.

After a year of starting at St. Elizabeth's Centre I achieved my NVQ level 2 with the support of my assessor. In addition to this I was offered the opportunity to become a CPI (Crisis Prevention and Intervention) Instructor. After a 5 day training course in London I was qualified to train groups of up to 15 people different techniques of crisis prevention – which I now do in addition to my day job!

In the future I plan to look into studying behaviour, nursing or care management. I hope to do this whilst continuing to work at St. Elizabeth's Centre. However, for the moment I am happy to be progressing internally and gaining experience in all aspects of my role as a Care Assistant.