We're bringing together training and development resources for personal assistants (PAs), helping you build confidence, develop new skills and access opportunities to support your career in adult social care.
Theres lots of different ways you can learn from shadowing a more experienced colleague, being trained by your employer, doing an apprenticeship, gaining knowledge through reading to more formal training where you gain a recognised qualification.
Funding for training
There are fully funded training offers available for individual employers (IEs) and PAs through your local user led organisation (ULO).
Take a look at our How IEs and PAs can benefit from the ULO fund guide to find out how you can access the current training offers.
Additionally:
- If your employer is receiving funding from their local authority or from the NHS (usually a direct payment), they may pay for training or offer free training.
- If your employer pays for your training, they may ask you to sign an agreement that states you’ll pay back the cost of the training if you leave their employment before the training is completed, or within a certain time period after you’ve completed the training.
Supporting your development
Care Workforce Pathway - PA role category
The Care Workforce Pathway includes a dedicated personal assistant role category, setting out the knowledge, skills, values and behaviours needed to deliver high-quality, personalised care and support. It also highlights suitable learning and development opportunities to help you grow in your role and explore future career options.
Explore the PA role category and find out more about career development and progression opportunities through the Care Workforce Pathway.
Individual employer and personal assistant training guide
This guide aims to support individual employers and personal assistants regularly identify their training needs. The guide consists of a set of questions to support both decide:
- what training needs they have
- the best way to meet these needs
- routes to explore where they can find the training
- funding options to pay for the training
- approaches to evaluating the training – what’s gone well and what other training needs have been identified.
The guide also comes with a set of templates to support map out essential and desirable training needs.
View the guide
A practical guide to learning and development for personal assistants
This guide is for personal assistants to help you develop in your role. It will help you think about what learning you might want to do and how best to do it.
View the guide