New to care qualifications

You don’t need any qualifications to start your career in care

Did you know that you could work in social care without any qualifications? You could start straight away.

The recruiting manager will make sure you’re a good fit for their organisation and you complete the training when you’ve started work.

There are, however, lots of training and qualifications available to develop your skills.

Care Certificates

Care Certificates are the initial qualifications you can get once you've started working in care.

Level 1 Care Certificate

The Care Certificate is an agreed set of standards. They define the expected knowledge, skills and behaviours for specific job roles in the health and social care sectors.

There are now 16 standards that you need to cover if you’re new to care. The Care Certificate standards were updated in March 2025. A new standard has been added to capture awareness of learning disability and autism. They should be part of a thorough induction programme in your workplace.

The standards include skills and knowledge that are important to your role such as duty of care, safeguarding adults, and communication.

Level 2 Care Certificate

There's a new Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate qualification for employees.

The Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate involves assessment of your knowledge and skills whilst you work in your day-to-day role. It takes on average 6 to 8 months to complete (for example 4 to 5 hours of learning a week, some of which could be doing your daily tasks).

The Level 2 certificate was launched in June 2024, and updated in March 2025.  

The qualification is designed to:

• provide a baseline standard to care
• reduce the need for repeat training
• give recognition to the care workforce for the professional career that it is