Whether you have recently gone through a resettlement workshop, or this is now a distant memory, a great first step on your journey into a career in health and care is to really understand what you have to offer, what type of work you enjoy most and what you would get the most fulfilment out of.
Translating my skills and qualifications
Understanding what your skills and qualifications are equivalent to in Scotland has been difficult in the past. However, the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework is Scotland’s lifelong learning framework and has now designed a tool that allows service leavers and veterans to translate not only ‘official’ qualifications, but also hard and soft skills which have been honed during your time in the military.
Although there are limited roles and ranks on the first page, there is a comprehensive list of military qualifications available, which will help you map and understand what you have gained in the military to a qualification level.
Further information can be found on the SCQF website and the skills discovery tool, which is part of ‘My World of Work’.
My role and impact as a leader
Leadership at all ranks is critical to success in the military. This is just as important in the health and care system where once again the quality and effectiveness of leadership will have a significant impact of the lives of our staff and the population we serve.
The leadership capabilities for Health and Care in Scotland have been developed to support and encourage people to think about how they exercise leadership in everyday roles, as well as informal management positions.
In addition, the Scottish Social Services Council have developed the resource: 23 Things Leadership. This can offer you some more learning and things to think about when considering leadership in the public sector.
Project Lift
Project Lift is a fresh approach to leadership development and talent management across health and care in Scotland. Its ethos is to ensure that there is leadership at all levels and all stages across health and care in Scotland.
This ethos is all about how we treat ourselves and each other, how you frame yourself, your team, systems in place and the belief that people are at the heart of everything we do.
By supporting strong leadership at all levels of health and social care, this allows us to make the most of our own, and other peoples, potential, to maximise our services and the positive impact we can make in Scotland.
The Project Lift Leadership Profile (PDF)
There is also an extremely useful self-assessment that you can do that you measure yourself against the Leadership Profile. You will need to sign into Turas to access the lift self-assessment.
The Carer questionnaire template (docx) will also help you to reflect on your career to date, what you find most and least fulfilling while guiding you to a better understanding of your aspirations and readiness.