A protective service specialist needs a range of hard skills to excel in their role. These include experience in social work, child safety, and foster care. They should also be knowledgeable about social services, APS, and community resources. The ability to handle crisis intervention and work with vulnerable adults is also crucial. As Lisa Farley, Associate Professor at Butler University, puts it, "Highly skilled applicants will be sought-after everywhere."
Soft skills are equally important for a protective service specialist. As Debra Minsky-Kelly, Director of Field Education / Clinical Assistant Professor of Social Work at Carthage College, notes, "A humble approach to our work empowers clients to become experts on their circumstances. Social workers are then positioned in a collaborative role to help clients use existing skills and resources to improve their situations." Monica Burney, Lecturer in Human Service Studies at Elon University, adds that skilled human services professionals "establish rapport well, ask open-ended questions, and frame conversations with verbal and non-verbal techniques that make people feel comfortable in communication."
Below we've compiled a list of the most critical protective service specialist skills. We ranked the top skills for protective service specialists based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 16.1% of protective service specialist resumes contained social work as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a protective service specialist needs to be successful in the workplace.
The eight most common skills for protective service specialists in 2024 based on resume usage.