After over 20 years of work placements, Chesterfield Royal Hospital is still passionate about providing opportunities for new people to explore roles in healthcare. With a broad range of work experience placements across the site, including their Nursing Cadetship Programmes, the Hospital’s offering is ever-expanding. We spoke to Work Experience Coordinator, Michelle Day and Staff Development and Apprenticeship Lead, Elizabeth Claridge to find out why work placements are an invaluable programme for their business.
What are the benefits of work placements, both for the learners and for you as an employer?
When learners come to us for a work placement in whatever area it might be in, they get a realistic view of what a future career could be like for them. We often find with healthcare-related jobs that you can get people who start their training without any real experience with the day-to-day duties involved. This means that they can sometimes have a false idea of what the role entails. Work placements are a win-win for both learners and employers because, once they have this key experience, learners know what they are getting themselves into and employers know that they are putting time and energy into people who are truly interested in the job and patient care.
It’s lovely because you get students who weren’t 100% at the start of the placement but, by the end, they’re saying that they have absolutely loved it and that it is definitely for them. It helps them resolve these decisions that they might have struggled to make if they hadn’t had this real hands-on experience.
A wide range of healthcare roles
Work placements are also a great experience because learners get to explore the range of job roles within an acute Healthcare setting. We have people who start the Cadetship programme who say they’re interested in one specific role, but after getting to see all the different types of healthcare professionals in practice, they realise a different role is for them. Without the work placement, they may have dropped out of the healthcare sector altogether after realising one specific role wasn’t for them. The work placement helps them to realise that healthcare is the place for them, they were just focussing on the wrong role within the sector. It gives them a better view of the different roles on offer, and they can pinpoint what they are truly passionate about.
In fact, working in healthcare is not just about becoming a doctor or a nurse necessarily. The NHS is a real team effort and there is a massive range of skills that come into play when you’re working in a hospital. We’re currently working with Chesterfield College to take some Business students as work experience, with the possibility that these placements will then lead to an apprenticeship with us.
A fresh, dedicated workforce
Placements are great for us as an employer because, if they’ve enjoyed the experience, learners often come back to work for us after going to university. Placements help us to establish those key ties and relationships with future employees.
In fact, some of the learners who come to us on placements who don’t quite achieve the qualification to go to university can progress through the ranks with our support. We’ve had quite a lot of people who have been on the Cadetship programme that now work for us at different levels but started as healthcare assistants which is due to the career development pathways that we have in place. They do still get to become nurses and it’s great for us because we’ve built up real loyalty from them, as we’ve supported them to get to that role.
We have had people who have come on work experience who go on to become healthcare assistants, then nursing associates and, finally, they became qualified nurses. We get to see that real progression all the way through. It makes us feel all warm and fuzzy because we know we helped start that journey off for them and we’ve supported them along the way.
What advice would you offer to employers considering taking people on through work placements or apprenticeships?
Employers need to be realistic and give them a real, fair chance. You can’t expect people on placements or apprenticeships to already be able to do the job because the whole reason that they are here on an apprenticeship in the first place is to develop their skills. You have to put time and effort in to develop each person and you need to be prepared to support the learner.
It is important to listen to the learner because they really do bring a lot to the table in terms of a fresh set of eyes. They help your organisation to develop new ideas and ways of working. They can be invaluable in terms of the new skills and technological knowledge that they bring to the role.
Why do you enjoy working with Chesterfield College?
We’ve done the Cadetship Programme with Chesterfield College at least a couple of times a year for a number of years. We also developed the Midwifery Work Experience programme and Children’s Nursing placement as well. All of these programmes are really popular at Chesterfield College.
We’re loyal to Chesterfield College because they serve our local community, and we want to support the needs of our local population. For the introduction of the new T Levels starting in September, we have been approached by a number of colleges, and will be supporting Chesterfield College with a number of places.
Our Nursing Cadetship also fits really well with the college’s programme and how the college structures timetabling and attendance. At college, learners have more flexibility, as students are not usually in college every day of the week, which suits the delivery of the programme.
We have established links at the college who we work with and who know and understand the criteria for a number of our placements. For example, they know that we don’t take learners from the first year on Health & Social Care Level 3 courses. As they’re well-informed on our guidance, they know exactly which students to approach, who will meet our criteria, and they inform them of the opportunities on offer and encourage them to apply.
What’s the average day or week like for someone doing a work placement at Chesterfield Royal Hospital?
We offer such a wide range of placements, so it’s difficult to describe each one, as it’s often very specific to the role they’re pursuing. Essentially, it’s a snapshot on any given day, of some kind of the patient service that they’ve come to see. Whether it’s in a clinical setting as a Physiotherapist, an admin role, or a day on the ward. No two days are the same.
Read Charlotte’s experience of the cadetship here: https://www.chesterfield.ac.uk/cadetships-allow-students-to-decide-which-area-theyd-like-to-specialise-in-within-the-hospital/