This is a place where place matters. We’re committed to improving the life opportunities, inclusion, social mobility and health and wellbeing of our local population. By 2020 the NCA commits to recruit over half of its workforce from the communities we serve. We know there is strong evidence linking decent work with good health. By employing local people we are supporting our local economy and infrastructure. This is our social value and anchor mission.
We know that for many, a small taste of what it’s like to work in healthcare is enough to raise their aspirations and fuel a desire to work in the NHS.
This is why our Widening Participation Team are dedicated to building a programme of work to target pockets of our community who would benefit from additional help to access opportunities. Our aim is to support these individuals to gain paid employment, learn new skills or simply gain exposure to the world of healthcare.
We hope that by reaching-out and connecting in this way, we can start to raise awareness of the many career opportunities available within the NHS and begin to build bridges with our future workforce.
From talks at primary schools, high schools and colleges to careers fairs, mock interviews and speed networking events – our NHS Career Ambassadors are committed to raising awareness of NHS Careers with our local young people.
If you’re a careers teacher in an NCA catchment postcode and are thinking about organising a careers’ event, please contact Careers.Hub@mft.nhs.uk
Working in partnership with local stakeholder agencies, teams and charities, we offer work experience and widen the opportunities for the following groups:
Each one of our Care Organisations run a supported internship programme. This is a year-long internship for young people with a learning disability (age 18-24) and is operated in partnership with local educational providers and/or the charity Pure Innovations. The internship programme combines classroom study, with three placements in real job roles across our hospital sites. This work and study time is invaluable. It enables our interns to gain the skills, confidence and qualifications necessary to step into paid employment at the end of the programme. We’ve had, and continue to have, huge successes with this programme. And, it’s a pleasure to see our young people step into a paid NHS career as a direct result of it.
To make sure that the NCA is adding value and support to our neighbouring communities, we run a range of pre-employment programmes to give disadvantaged social groups a foot in the door within the NHS. These are mainly focused at helping local unemployed people, who are interested in working in the NHS but perhaps lacking the work experience necessary for their job application to be successful.
Our pre-employment programmes are as follows:
These programmes provide the opportunity to make a real positive difference in someone’s life, and can act as a stepping-stone, out of unemployment. We continue to work with partners to extend this offer.
