Careers in the Helping Professions
Careers in the Helping Professions
Students in the social sciences and liberal arts are often quite motivated to pursue careers that will position them to help individuals and communities with problem-solving, with navigating institutions, and with pursuing their goals.
Many Ways to Help
Careers in the helping professions can take various forms:
Helping Individual Clients
When we talk about the ‘helping professions’, many career paths lead towards individual helping relationships, whether that means focusing on a person’s physical well-being, their mental and psychological health, their working life, or their navigation of social and family relationships.
Helping Communities
Many social sciences students, recognizing the importance of systemic and structural issues, become interested in careers that will allow them to help people by strengthening the policies, programs, and communities that can, in turn, allow individuals and families to flourish.
Related Occupational Categories
Whereas exploring careers by ‘sectors’ helps us to sort by employer type, industry, or general field of work, Economic and Social Development Canada’s ‘occupational’ categories tend to focus more on the duties and functions that people play in specific roles. Here are just a few of the occupation categories that may be relevant to this sector:
Academic Program Connections
As you select your program of study and the courses you will take, you can chart a path towards success in this sector from any one of our social sciences departments and programs. Here are just a few examples of academic disciplines that have connections with this sector:
Social Work Learn More
As a professional program, graduates of a Bachelor of Social Work program are uniquely qualified to work as registered social workers, as formally recognized by the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers. However, the skills and knowledge gained from Social Work courses can also be applied across contexts in the helping professions.
Health, Aging & Society Learn More
Students who pursue courses or a degree path in Health and Society, or in Aging and Society, have unique insights into the way social and health systems impact individual and family health. They often pursue work in helping professions, whether that is supporting client health and well-being across the life course, or helping build healthy communities, programs, and institutions.
Social Psychology Learn More
Social psychology students tend to be interested in pursuing work that rewards deep understanding of how the individual experience of mental health an well-being is embedded within social, cultural, and systemic structures. Their multidisciplinary perspective makes them well-suited to a wide range of helping professions.
Sociology Learn More
Sociology courses and programs prepare students with a wide range of analytical and systems thinking skills, which prepares them well for either policy-focused roles or for careers focused on building individual helping relationships.
