Occupation
Developmental service worker
Developmental service workers support people with intellectual or developmental disabilities to live, work, and take part in their communities. The role covers personal care, skills teaching, behaviour support, and advocacy, usually in group homes, day programmes, or supported employment. Consistency and detailed documentation matter, because support plans are followed by a whole team across shifts.
Also known as: Disability support worker · Learning disability support worker · Direct support professional · Developmental support worker
Occupation content
Part of Community, social and public services
What the work involves
- Deliver personal care and daily living support according to each individual's plan
- Teach and practise life, social, and employment skills with the people supported
- Follow behaviour support plans and use approved de-escalation approaches
- Support access to community activities, appointments, work, and family contact
- Document progress, incidents, and health observations for the support team
- Communicate with families, clinicians, and case managers about changes and concerns
How people commonly enter
- A college diploma in developmental service work, disability support, or community services
- Entry-level hiring with employer training in behaviour support, safe practice, and medication administration where permitted
- Transferring from personal support, education assistant, or mental health support roles
Typical training: Certificate or college diploma
Licensing: Not typically licensed
Typical work context
Client sites · Team based · Physically active · Shift work · Public facing
Related interests
Social (helping) · Realistic (hands-on)
Related aptitude preparation
These are preparation links only. They do not measure eligibility for this occupation and no score here qualifies or disqualifies anyone.
Skills to practise
Practice suites
Related learning
Family-level learning links for Community, social and public services.
Official sources
Labour-market facts such as pay and employment projections are not reproduced here. Open an official source below for figures, with its own geography and reference period.
- O*NET OnLine — occupation search: personal care aide · United States
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- UK National Careers Service — Care worker job profile · United Kingdom
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- Canada Job Bank — Career planning and occupation exploration (ESDC) · Canada
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Labour-market context (not part of exploration match)
This is broad family-level context for Community, social and public services in Canada, not a figure for Developmental service worker. It does not affect matching scores and is not an eligibility determination.
This is a broad Community, social and public services family. Explore the official profile for the chosen occupation; entry education and training can differ within the family.
Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period
Community, social and public services: education pathways
Some roles in Community, social and public services may be regulated. Confirm whether the specific role requires registration, certification, or a jurisdiction-specific licence.
Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period
Community, social and public services: licensing
Find jobs
These are live, user-controlled searches on each source's own site for “ Developmental service worker”. Novus Learn does not fetch, store, or rank these results, and job availability never changes your exploration match score.
- Search Canada Job Bank · Canada
- Search USAJOBS · United States federal
- Search EURES · European Union / EEA
- Search Indeed · International (choose location on Indeed)