National Careers Week 2015 - The Digital Guide | Page 28
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FRIDAY APPRENTICESHIPS
MEET NHS CAREERS
Did you know there are over 350 different careers on offer in the NHS?
The NHS needs everyone from doctors, nurses and midwives to healthcare
Scientists, IT staff, gardeners, physiotherapists and secretaries – so with the right
skills and values, there really is something for everyone. The NHS offers training
through apprenticeships, degree courses and vocational qualifications, so
whether your students and clients are just starting out or looking for a career
change, NHS Careers has resources to help them make those important
decisions.
NHS Careers is the information
service for anyone interested in a
career in healthcare in England. It
consists of a website, telephone
helpline and a variety of resources
to help school students, teachers and
careers advisers with careers planning.
The resources include useful facts and
figures, an annual schools
competition, and ‘Real life, your life’
teaching resources to help students
prepare for the world of work.
With 350 careers on offer, it is no
surprise that the NHS is one of the
largest employers in Europe. The NHS
employs over 1.3million people so it is
vital that their staff are well trained to
consistently meet patients’ needs.
Health Education England (HEE) was
established in 2012 to help improve
the quality of care by ensuring the
NHS workforce has the right numbers,
skills, values and behaviours to meet
the needs of patients.
Each year, HEE produces a Workforce Plan for England which sets out the
investments it will make in education and training programmes for the coming
year. In December 2014, HEE published its second Workforce Plan for
England, covering the period 2015.
The plan has been informed by HEE’s Framework 15 (a strategy based upon the
needs of future patients) and the Five Year Forward View, a vision for healthcare
which HEE contributed to.
Key points from the plan include:
• 555 additional training places in adult nursing
• 161 additional training places in children’s nursing
• 100 additional training places in mental health nursing
• 115 additional training places in operating department practice
• 378 additional places in paramedic training
• 190 additional places in Improving Access to Psychological Therapies
• 181 additional training places for physician associates
• More than 500 additional training places in community- based nursing
(including school nurses, practice nurses and district nurses
• Increasing the number of GPs
HEE also plans to:
• Encourage more community and primary care based training such as post
registration programmes for nurses
• Additional investment in the current workforce, for example enabling
further opportunities for career development/training for those in clinical
support roles
• Ensure that universities running NHS-funded courses assess successful
candidates against the values of the NHS Constitution
Read HEE’s 2015/16 Workforce Plan for England to find out more about the
training places available. Tell your students to visit the NHS Careers website to