In this blog post, Chris Williams, founder of Tiggo Care, gives 5 actionable tips for healthcare assistants looking for employment in the UK.

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About the Author

This guest blog post is written by Chris Williams, the founder of Tiggo Care, an award-winning home care and live-in care agency based in London, United Kingdom. Chris has hired hundreds of healthcare assistants and reviewed over 10,000 applications since launching Tiggo Care.

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Introduction

If you’re looking for healthcare assistant jobs in the UK, it’s important to approach the application process strategically to increase your chances of success. In this blog post, Chirs will provide you with five actionable tips to help you navigate the application process, from how to check if a company can sponsor your visa to the best questions to ask in your telephone interview. By following these suggestions, you’ll be better equipped to secure your desired healthcare assistant role and contribute to the well-being of service users in the UK!

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1. Check Visa Sponsorship Online

My first piece of advice is for international applicants to check their potential employer has a valid sponsorship licence. There is no point in calling or applying for a role at a care company that does not hold a valid sponsorship license. It is illegal for them to hire you so they will immediately reject your application.

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I know of countless international applicants who aimlessly apply without checking if the potential employer can sponsor their visa. This isn’t a good use of your time when it’s so easy to check online if a company has a valid sponsorship licence. You can do so by visiting the UK Visas and Immigration website or by looking for opportunities on a platform like Borderless. Many employers also advertise sponsorship opportunities on their website careers page.

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2. Clearly State Your Location & Contact Details

The first thing I check when I’m reading the CV of an applicant is their address, or more specifically their postcode. As a home care company, Tiggo Care needs its care assistants to live near their clients’ homes. I’m usually recruiting for a particular zone and I won’t consider care assistants outside of that catchment area. If you don’t include your address, there’s a chance I won’t call you at all because I will first call all of the candidates who have clearly stated their address is within our catchment area.

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It’s obviously different when we’re hiring candidates from overseas because overseas candidates are recruited over longer timelines and are not looking to work part-time. We can also advise overseas candidates about the best places to live within our catchment area. Thus their current address is somewhat less important. However, it’s still important to know where you will be migrating from because the UK’s Code of Practice for the international recruitment of health and social care personnel in England has restrictions on healthcare assistant jobs in around 30 different countries. Therefore, I’ll first consider those who clearly state their country of origin before considering those who didn’t include this information.

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If you’re based in the UK and you don’t include your phone number then there’s no chance I will contact you because email and instant messaging are too slow for recruiting staff that don’t require visa sponsorship. It’s also unlikely that I’ll call an international number if the candidate states their address is within our catchment area because:

1. It is expensive
2. It suggests you don’t intend to stay in the country for very long

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If you’ve already moved to the UK you should get a UK phone number so that it’s easier for employers to contact you and to show future employers that you intend to stay in the UK for a while.

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3. Highlight Relevant Experience

Many potential healthcare assistants seem to think they don’t need to provide a CV when they’re applying for a role in care. This is untrue and I don’t consider applicants that don’t provide a CV. On your CV you need to highlight all relevant experience and training. Ensure your experience is listed in chronological order with your most recent experience listed first.

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If you’ve worked as a care assistant before but not for a while you may want to split your experience into two sections: Relevant Experience and Other Experience. List all care-related experience in the Relevant Experience section and have the Relevant Experience section at the start of your CV.

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If you’ve got a gap in your work history you should explain why. The CQC, the care regulator in England, expects all employers to investigate gaps in work history and large or regular gaps with no explanations can be enough to deter someone from putting your application forward to the next stage.

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4. Format Your CV

When we’re hiring for a care assistant I might look at 100 different CVs per day. I don’t have much time to read each one so your CV must be nicely formatted so I can quickly read the things that make you stand out. Do not use cursive fonts. Instead, stick to something simple. If you want to add a bit of colour or a picture of yourself that’s absolutely fine but don’t make it so colourful that I struggle to read the content. If your CV is hard to read then I might miss some critical information about you and accidentally not consider you for a telephone interview.

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5. Prepare For Telephone Interview & Sound Enthusiastic

When you’re employed as a care assistant you are the face of the business and interacting with service users on a daily basis. Employers want you to make a good first impression when you meet a service user for the first time and so employers will pay close attention to the first impression you give them when they speak to you over the telephone for the first time.

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The best way to make a great first impression is for you to sound professional and enthusiastic. You definitely don’t want to sound distracted or as though the telephone call has just woken you up. If the interviewer calls you at a bad time don’t be afraid to ask them if you can call them back in 5 or 10 minutes because they’ve caught you at a bad time. That way you can ensure you’re in a quiet and relaxed environment for the telephone interview and you’re giving yourself the best opportunity to succeed.

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When you speak to the interviewer, ask questions about the business to sound enthusiastic about the opportunity. Good questions include:

• What is the average duration of a shift at your company and when do they start/finish?
• Do you offer weekend shifts and/or night shifts and/or live-in care?
• What are your pay rates?
• Do you provide Care Certificate training?
• Do you provide funding for NVQs in Health & Social Care?
• What types of service users do you support?

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All of these questions suggest you’re serious about working as a care assistant and that you’re likely to turn up to work. However, remember to research the company in advance and don’t ask questions where the answers are already advertised in the job advert or job description.

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Conclusion

In conclusion, applying for healthcare assistant jobs in the UK doesn’t have to be hard. By following these five tips you can greatly increase your chances of securing a healthcare assistant role. Remember to check visa sponsorship, clearly state your location and contact details, highlight relevant experience, format your CV for readability, and sound enthusiastic when participating in a telephone interview. If you implement these suggestions, you’re more likely to hear back from future employers and ace the telephone interview.