Data collected from thousands of adult social care employers by Skills for Care shows that by 2025 the sector will need to fill up to one million job roles as our society ages.
That means our sector will need to recruit and retain around 800,000 new people.
That's one reason why we teamed up with Jobcentre Plus and employers in the North East Partnership to create the first Care Factor event in Newcastle offering jobseekers from across Northumberland, Tyne and Wear a chance to find out more about careers in the care sector.
Jobcentre Plus identified around 200 jobseekers who were interested in care careers and Skills for Care brought together 37 employers who were looking to recruit new staff.
The idea of the Care Factor was simple – during the morning sessions the jobseekers attended informal sessions delivered by frontline workers to give them a taste of what care industry is all about.
Gail Mustoe, from Helping Hands Community Care, led one of the jobseeker sessions and said: "People were shown how to give and live in the care industry."
Meanwhile, employers met in parallel sessions to hear more about Skills for Care's work around values-based recruitment, as well as how Jobcentre Plus and the National Apprenticeship Service could help them.
On any given day in adult social care there are around 60,000 open vacancies nationally, so employers appreciated the sessions designed to review their recruitment processes before meeting enthusiastic candidates.
The Care UK team were one of the employers who found this pilot event useful, telling the organisers it was "a very informative event which has given us good tools to assess our recruitment and retention process. We also saw some really excellent, quality candidates."
The afternoon session was an open market place where the jobseekers could meet employers to talk about what types of vacancies were on offer, and for employers to talk to candidates who might be a good fit for their business.
Michelle David and Karen Harrison from At Home in the Community were impressed by the high calibre of potential employers noting that it was "nice to see such positivity and enthusiasm." This view was shared by Allied Healthcare who reported it was "really good to meet an engaged mix of people."
As the jobseekers already had a clear idea of the sort of rewarding careers on offer in adult social care they were able to sit down with employers who could then assess candidates' suitability for roles in their organisations.
It was an ideal opportunity for the Jobcentre Plus to build on their existing relationship with local care employers and introduce some of their clients to an industry that is only going to grow over the next decade.
Sharon Brydon from Jobcentre Plus said: "By working in partnership, and bringing together candidates and employers through events such as the Care Factor, we hope to attract more people and the right people to care sector roles in the future."
But the final word on this event must go to jobseeker Adele who said: "I found it very interesting and helpful as I'd never considered care before, but now I know I have lot of the skills and experience I can bring."
To find out more about careers in adult social care click here.
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