Top Tips for Creating Your Personal Statement

When applying for any personal care assistant role, we know it’s important to put our best foot forward. However, our minds can go blank when looking at the section that asks us to write about ourselves. How do we ensure we’re sharing the right information, conveying our suitability for the role and highlighting all of our strengths and attributes, whilst also keeping our statement easy to read, factual, friendly and to the point?

In this article, we will share our tips for creating a personal statement for a personal care assistant job, whether you have no experience or many years of experience, be it informal or formal. We’ll guide you on how best to showcase your skills and effectively communicate your experiences. When completing your UKCIL application, you can scroll down the form to see the list of skills that are often required of a carer - using these as a prompt, you can expand on anything you wish to within your own personal statement.

Apply Successfully with Little or No Formal Experience

If you have little or no previous care experience, you may feel unsure about what to put in your personal statement but rest assured, of the thousands of carers we have working with us, hundreds start working with our clients having had little or no previous experience, so don’t let this fact put you off applying.

What successful carers need to have in common is the right attitude - they demonstrate a willingness to help, be good listeners and be empathetic. Also, in terms of skills, although you may lack formal training, you will most likely find that you already have many of the soft skills that most of the individual employers working with us are looking for, whilst specific skills can be learnt along the way. Soft skills are non-technical skills that demonstrate how you work and interact with others. Unlike hard skills, they're not necessarily something you'll learn in a course, instead they're something you’ll often build through day-to-day experiences. You may well have acquired these when working with others in any capacity and / or whilst looking after a loved one.

Be Sure to Include your Soft Skills

The core soft skills that individual employers seek in carers are:

1. A caring nature is important: You may be required to do all sorts of tasks, including ones involving personal hygiene and so being compassionate and respectful, whilst providing a safe environment for the person you are caring for is an essential requirement. Because your focus needs to be the wellbeing of others, you will need to maintain drive and energy in your role
   
   
2. A sensitive personality is very helpful as your client may be going through a difficult time and experiencing changes that they didn’t expect or want. Your sensitivity and empathy can make them feel more relaxed and comfortable about in talking to you
   
3. Reliability and trustworthiness - For vulnerable people this is a crucial soft skill that they seek in someone who is caring for them. You will need to provide a sense of security and may provide support to maintain their daily routine, so they are very reliant on you and want to feel as though they are in safe hands
   
4. Excellent communication skills mean you are able to effectively share your own perspectives, so that they are heard and understood, whilst also being able to acknowledge others so that they feel heard and understood. This is a vital skill as you’ll be communicating with others all the time in your new role
   
5. Team work - Being able to work as a team is essential when working as a personal care assistant and will be useful for when you are dealing with the individual employer you’re working for, their loved ones, and / or any supporting bodies / healthcare professionals they are working with
   
6. Problem solving - Sometimes, unexpected issues can arise that you may need to resolve. Being able to identify a problem, think on your feet and often critically so that you can determine the best resolution will be vitally useful to the person you are working for
   
7. Time management - When working as a personal care assistant, you will have pre-agreed times for when the individual employer and their family will be expecting you to arrive and to support them. Once you arrive, you may be required to wake someone up, help them to to bed or prepare a meal and feed them, so it is vitally important that you arrive on time and complete the agreed tasks in the given timeframe so as not to interrupt their routine
   
8. Adaptability - For a personal care assistant, no two days are the same. Being able to adapt your approach depending on your client and their needs is an extremely important skill.

Soft skills are also transferable skills that you can use in many different situations, and you may already have examples of when you used these skills that you are able to highlight within your personal statement.

Tell the Employer WHY You Want to be a Personal Care Assistant

A personal statement is a chance to express yourself to the employer so don’t forget to include why you are pursuing a career as a care assistant. Let them know why you think you are the right person for the role, and why you have chosen this role.

Share Your Experience

Whatever your previous role(s) - formal or informal - and wherever you were based, communicating your duties, learnings and responsibilities will help to create an effective personal statement for a care assistant role. Remember to highlight any relevant previous experience: Maybe you studied in a related field, gained experience through looking after a loved one or did some work as an unpaid carer. These experiences can give you more than enough skills to start your career as a care assistant.

Within your personal statement, you could include the condition(s) you supported with and how you cared for any individual(s). Highlight how you learnt to support them, what you learned from your experience and how you think this will benefit you in the job you’re applying for. Highlighting moments that stand out for you and discussing the skills you have gained so far, through the support you have provided, especially when it relates to the job requirements of the role you’re applying to, is sure to make your personal statement stand out.