5 Jobs You Qualify for With Coursework In Community Services

If you love working with people and have a passion for helping as well as making a difference, you can go to college to study community services. Though this discipline seems like a simple one, it is really a careful study of the best practices and the latest research in how to help people in general, and how to approach them in their demographic with grace and knowledge.

This kind of coursework may not be necessary for some types of service-centered work, but being knowledgeable and having studied community service can make you a more qualified and better prepared candidate for any of the following career paths.

1. An In-Home Caregiver for Aging Individuals

If you enjoy helping elderly people and keeping them company, a career in aging services as an in-home caregiver may be just the type of work you seek. Though you may know how to care and get along with an elderly person, in most cases you need some coursework, like certificate 3 in community services, to get beyond the threshold of such a job.

Some elderly people choose to still live at home because they live independently within limits. Therefore, you would have to learn how to help them navigate and care for themselves. You may need to cook or do a load of laundry, as well as prepare a nutritious meal for that person. Keeping the person company may be the less taxing part of your job description.

2. A Caregiver In an Aging Population Facility

If you want to work as a carer at an aging care facility, you need to pass a set of community services courses in order to be considered. At an aging care facility, you may have to help people with varying degrees of mental and physical limitations in addition to working with the typical elderly individuals.

Through your community services coursework, you will not only learn the basics about caring for an elderly individual, but you will also gain insight on how to work with a person who has memory loss or dementia. You may also learn how to handle people with physical limitations in a safe, responsible, respectful and hygienic manner.

3. A caregiver for the Disabled

If you choose community service courses as your direction of study, you may be eligible to work with individuals who are disabled. Though a lot of the fundamental coursework is similar in nature to that which qualifies you to care for elderly patients, the courses teaching you about disabilities vary slightly.

In those courses you may learn how to properly talk with and help people with varying degrees of disability. You will get a glimpse into how people with physical disabilities gain their independence as well as guide them through this process from your own experiences

4. A Daycare Provider for Small Children

If you enjoy working with children, you may be pleased to know that you may be eligible to work as a daycare provider once you complete a set of community service courses. Though it's very intuitive especially if you love kids, caring for children is a complex and important job. Thus, it requires some learned insight into early childhood development, teaching and learning strategies, and how to approach children regarding behavioral issues and milestones.

If you want to work in a children's daycare facility, you may have to learn about how to safely prepare foods for small children to minimize choking hazards, how to change nappies and prepare breastmilk or formula and how to help a child who may be struggling with behavioral or developmental issues. You may also learn valuable tidbits about conflict resolution between kids, and how to determine if you need to settle the conflict as a caregiver or whether to let the children resolve it.

5. A Mental Health Support Specialist

Finally, with certificates and coursework in community services, you can qualify to work as a mental health specialist. Though you may be prohibited from dispensing drugs or offering solid medical advise, you can still offer a listening ear and sound strategies to individuals seeking mental health care services.

You may also learn when to recognise true mental distress that requires a psychiatric consultancy to which you can refer patients whenever appropriate.

Caring for Your Community

If caring for others is in your blood, let it be part of your education as well. There are so many important and versatile career pathways when you take on community service courses. 

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