Recruitment fair?

At the HefmA Conference in Torquay, held earlier this year, one of the sessions was about apprentices. It was really encouraging to meet two young men who have not only been through the apprentice scheme, but are now working towards higher academic and professional qualifications. In talking with them, it was through local publicity by the scheme organisers and the NHS trusts involved that they heard of the possibility of doing an NHS-based trade apprenticeship.

Career paths
Prior to this, within HFC we had worked with the Leicester Education Business Company to produce a careers day for year 8 students entitled ‘It’s Not Just Doctors and Nurses!’ Within this event, we provided the lead session looking at the wide range of career paths that are available within the facilities side of healthcare, both as NHS employees and working within contractors and PFI partnerships, as well as the professions allied to medicine and those which are common to any large business.

The enthusiasm of the young people as the reality of the range of healthcare related jobs was opened up to them and explained in more detail in class size workshops was a joy to see. It was rewarding to listen to the questions they asked as their understanding of who works within the NHS was blown wide open.

This day set me thinking about the careers days I remember when I was at school and when my children were going through the same process. The career choices promoted for the NHS were the same – doctors, nurses and possibly physiotherapy. So what can we do to address the misperception amongst young people about the range of jobs with in healthcare?

Raising awareness
Many organisations already have a presence at local careers events run by their local authorities for schools and colleges, but my experience says that they promote the doctors and nurses side of the career pathways. This needs to be expanded to include all job opportunities within the organisations, and can be achieved by working together with other healthcare providers and local authorities to promote the careers common to all such employers. Links with local colleges that provide the courses that underpin these career choices can also be established with relatively little effort and this will overlap into the career days that all run.

Working with schools
Alternatively, days like the one mentioned above can be run for local schools and HFC would be pleased to work with anyone interested to develop this forward. We already have the skeleton for a day event tailored to a school timetable that just needs to be amended in agreement with the school and support from local healthcare providers with a handful of relevant professionals who are willing to talk about their own career to students. It’s not rocket science after all; you just need to be able to enthuse about your own career and answer quite simple questions about the wider range of career paths.

Last year, HFC linked up with the Q3 Academy, one of the new breed of academies replacing old and often failing schools. This is a business academy covering years 7 to 13 (ages 11-18) and Q3 have joined the Career Academy movement, a National Charity working with employers to raise the aspirations and employability skills of 16-19 year olds. This is done by providing mentors, guru lectures, visits and internships.

Becoming a part of the NHS
In discussion with the Careers Academy advisor supporting Q3 in this venture, they mentioned that they would love to extend their NHS links. Whilst I am keen to develop this locally it is actually a national issue; we are going to approach all of our local healthcare provider organisations to see if they are willing to get involved with the local academy but if anyone outside of the Birmingham, Walsall, Wolverhampton area is interested I would be pleased to put them in touch with the relevant people.

Many young people would like to make their future a part the NHS; what can we do to encourage them into the wide range of job opportunities that we provide and often need filling?

For more information
www.hfc.org.uk
www.careeracademies.org.uk