Traineeships at Birmingham Children’s Hospital June 2015
Background • Birmingham Children’s Hospital is a medium-sized Trust employing circa 4,000 staff • Passionate about providing a range of employment opportunities for young people • In 2014 we have had between 60 – 70 Apprenticeships with an 85% conversion rate into permanent BCH roles • In 2014 we developed and launched a BCH Youth Academy
Why Traineeships? • Wanted to pilot a pre-apprenticeship programme • Open to a new and innovative way of engaging with young people • Detailed conversations with Walsall College about the programme and had already established a positive working relationship with them via our Apprenticeship programmes
The Model (Jay from Walsall College to clarify and confirm) • 9 week programme, week 1 and week 9 full-time classroom based. Weeks 2 – 8 one day in classroom and 2 days in work placements • Recruitment managed by Walsall College in partnership with BCH • Cohort 1 took part in our annual challenge week whereby Trainees along with young BCH staff were charged with the task of creating a name logo and slogan for our BCH Youth Academy
Challenges Practicalities – booking rooms in a busy teaching hospital, arranging meetings with • managers, education leads, and Walsall College Securing work placements in a range of departments • Boundaries – for example ensuring managers were clear about the work tasks that • young people could perform (Trainees had limited ICT access so were unable to perform certain tasks) Disappointment of young people not securing BCH Apprenticeships following the • Traineeship Promoting benefits to managers – if young people did not secure BCH • Apprenticeship positions Supporting managers to challenge behaviours such as punctuality and • professionalism Responding to feedback from Trainees around some of the tasks they were given •
Benefits Provided 25 young people with high quality work placements which • increased their skills, knowledge and confidence For those that secured BCH Apprenticeships they had high levels of • organisation and intelligence and realistic expectations of roles All Trainees had at least one interview with constructive feedback • Our BCH managers gained experience of engaging, working with, and • managing young staff Our junior members of staff including Apprentices gained experience of • mentoring Trainees Trainees work towards Functional Skills qualifications so for those that • secured BCH Apprenticeships, for the majority one element had already been achieved
Why did it work at BCH? Senior management buy in and support • Clear communication lead between Walsall College, education lead and • managers Existing positive relationships between Walsall college and BCH • BCH’s involvement in taught sessions (although this was not mandatory) – • we used this as an opportunity to talk about organisational values Equal partnership between Walsall college and BCH with flexibility on both • sides Holistic support for Trainees from Walsall College and BCH • For the second cohort of Trainees we had existing Apprentices that had • already completed the Traineeship programme. They acted as role modals and visited the taught sessions to talk about their experiences
Questions and Answers?
Contact Details Rebecca Orton Widening Participation Lead rebecca.orton@bch.nhs.uk Work Tel: 0121 333 8607 Mobile: 07972186822
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