A degree in Health and Human Sciences opens up career opportunities in a very wide range of settings and roles. Information on possible career pathways can be found at:
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/careers
Public health is a multidisciplinary field concerned with protecting and promoting the health in a variety of settings. This could involve working with individuals, groups, local communities or on a national and international level. Health education, promotion of healthy lifestyles, and research for disease and injury prevention are possible areas of work. Public health professionals may work on the impact of lifestyle choices and environmental factors on health, in order to develop interventions to protect and improve health. There is a range of employers offering public health roles in local authorities, the NHS, health policy settings, academic research, voluntary/community organisations and international health settings.
Working in public health can be a very rewarding career. It enables you to can understand and eventually influence various social, environmental, cultural, economic and political factors affecting health and wellbeing. Opportunities include: research and development of systems to protect people’s health from environmental or human emergencies; helping people to improve their own health; helping to develop health services are the best and the most appropriate to the setting and circumstances.
https://careers.dept.shef.ac.uk/infores/sectorinfo.php?s=Health&t=9
Work in this sector is focused on providing specialist practical and emotional support to clients, in the form of arranging access to relevant services, providing therapeutic interventions, and delivering counselling, advice and guidance. The type of support varies according to the client's needs and the settings in which it takes place but includes:
Advice work, Childcare and child protection, Community work, Support with fostering and adoption, Social work, Residential care, Youth and community work.
Major employers include: Local councils, the NHS, charities, residential and non-residential care organisations, schools and colleges and some private sector companies.
The range of specialisms that can be involved in supporting clients with complex needs, means that work is often in multi-agency teams, with liaison between different professionals to ensure a coordinated approach to individuals' care.
Some of the jobs include unsociable working hours, and can mean operating from a variety of settings, either within the same day, or across the working week. The roles can be stressful and sometimes involve dealing with potentially distressing situations, but they can offer a huge sense of personal reward.
There is a general lack of awareness among the population of the range of professional level opportunities in the social care sector, meaning recruitment of sufficient staff is an issue for the sector. This is exacerbated by the fact that jobs can be temporary, with fixed-term contracts common in some parts of the sector, largely due to the pressure on budgets and the short-term nature of funding. All of this means there is a shortage of suitably qualified staff, illustrated by the fact that at any one time, there can be 80,000 vacancies for social care jobs in England alone.
https://careers.dept.shef.ac.uk/infores/sectorinfo.php?s=Community&t=1
https://icould.com/explore/job_types/charities+and+community+work
The organisations in this sector fall into four broad categories
Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) - operating on a not-for-profit basis, these include charities and other agencies which deliver projects in communities and/or campaign on behalf of particular issues. There are many thousands of such organisations worldwide, and opportunities exist in small organisations as well as the large and more well-known ones.
National Governments and their agencies. For example, in the UK this is primarily the Department for International Development (DFID).
Intergovernmental Organisations such as the United Nations and the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD). Internships exist with some international organisations but competition is strong. These are generally aimed at postgraduates and are often unpaid.
Specialist consultancies and research bodies, including universities and research institutes (‘think tanks’) which provide services to client organisations.
https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/international-aid-development-worker
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-international-development
Although the specific aims of the organisations in the sector vary, they can broadly be described as working for social benefit rather than to generate financial wealth.
Organisations range from small local community groups to large organisations, including national and international charities. In addition to organisations which work to address social issues in areas such as the environment, health, welfare, housing and other causes.
https://www.prospects.ac.uk/jobs-and-work-experience/job-sectors/charity-and-voluntary-work
General Resources