Fed up of making money for ‘the man’? Sick to death of a job that doesn’t add anything positive to the world? If so then you might be a great deal happier doing a job where you can help others. The good news is there is a wide range of careers that fall under this umbrella. Just keep reading to find out what they are, and what they involve.
Speech and language therapist
A speech therapist can make a massive positive difference in the life of their patient. This is because they can help them not only with their speech but with things like drinking, eating and swallowing as well.
Speech therapists can work in a range of situations from schools, and private practice, to hospitals and nursing homes. Indeed, while many people believe that speech therapists only help young children, a great number also work with adults postoperatively, or after a health incident such as a stroke.
In a similar way to other therapist roles, speech therapists will need to diagnose, and then set out a treatment plan for their patients to ensure they get the most effective help. For training most speech therapists require undergraduate and then postgraduate degrees, so it’s a good idea to work on your academics if you want to get into this field.
Assistance dog trainer
Most people think that a career training assistance dogs is a great way to spend your time with adorable puppies. However, there is so much more to it than that. For insurance, the training that you give those puppies is crucial because a person with disabilities needs to be able to rely on them in the future.
Indeed, assistance dogs can provide a wide range of support for those with disabilities including alerting people to doorbells and ringing phones, alerting their owners to low blood sugar, assisting their owners if they have a fit, as well as guiding those who have issues with their site.
Right now there is no one route to becoming an assistance dog trainer, but a great way to begin can be getting a lot of experience with dogs, perhaps helping out at a shelter, or a training facility. A degree in animal behaviour may also be helpful. However, because it’s such a specialized position many charities that provide assistance dogs offer on-the-job training too.
Teacher
Teaching can be an incredibly rewarding career as you help educate and guide young people to fulfil their full potential. If you are looking to specialize in a particular academic area then teaching older children and young adults may be best as you focus on a specific subject. You’ll teach kids specific facts so they can pass their exams, as well as academic study techniques, providing them with a variety of activities from group work to individual research. Likely, you will also have pastoral responsibilities, taking on a class and ensuring their overall well-being throughout the school year.
However, if you enjoy working with younger children and helping them form the foundations on which all their other learning will be made then working primary or nursery work will be best. Primary work tends to be a combination of the basics in literacy and numeracy, along with STEM-based project work and creativity. Indeed, if you love nothing more than arts and crafts, working with this age group can be especially rewarding.
To enter into the teaching field you will need either an unrelated degree, a postgraduate diploma or a degree in education. Although it is also possible to do on-the-job training.
Charity work
Working for a charity is very different from working in the commercial sector. Instead of the value of your work only being tied to the bottom line, it has a greater meaning, because no matter the role you take on, it will help others. There are hundreds of different types of roles that you can choose from in the charity sector as well. This means you don’t necessarily have to retrain, but can use your current knowledge and expertise for good.
For example, if you have skills in marketing or graphic design, you can help charities engage better with their donors. If your strengths are in management, you may take on a role where you ensure those under you are performing to the best of their abilities. However, if you prefer to work directly with the people your charity is designed to help then a coordinator role, where you get to work on the front line may suit you well.
Psychologist
Poor mental health seems to be an epidemic right now, so there is a great deal of good you can do by choosing to become a psychologist. After all, psychologists aim to help reduce the mental, and emotional suffering of their patients.
The role of a psychologist can be quite varied and includes not only talking to patients one-on-one but also diagnosing people, organizing support groups and group therapy, providing supervision for other psychologists and referring patients who need more specialist care.
If this sounds appealing to you and you want to investigate how to become a psychologist then it’s worth noting that the options available to you will depend on where in the world you are located. For instance, if you are based in Australia, you can complete a UTS scheme, internship and exam, or you can go down the academic route and complete an undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degree.
Relationship counsellor
Last, of all, you can truly help many people by becoming a relationship counsellor. The role of a relationship counsellor is to guide couples, and families through their problems and help them to better communicate in the future.
One of the main roles of a relationship counsellor is to see couples and families and provide everyone with a platform on which to speak and share their feelings. Of course, it can be emotionally draining work as you are helping those in need navigate their problems, but it can also be incredibly rewarding as you can help people improve the quality of their lives.
Academic and clinical training is usually needed to qualify as a relationship counsellor, and it’s usually best to check the requirements in your location before embarking on this career.
