Hospital trust on the lookout for apprentices

School-leavers and their parents will be able to find out more about job opportunities in the NHS at an event in South Shields next week.

The event, at South Tyneside District Hospital takes place on Wednesday, March 16, as part of National Apprenticeship Week.

South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust introduced apprenticeship programmes for young people in 2010.

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Since then, it has recruited 84 apprentices, the majority of whom have gone on to achieve nationally-recognised qualifications and have progressed into employment or further and higher education.

The trust’s apprentices gain practical experience in a range of supervised placements in both hospital and community settings and attend a training session one day a week.

They are issued with a contract of employment for 12 months while on the programme and receive a training allowance.

Learning and development manager Carole Plowman said: “Young people can often find it difficult to get started in employment, and apprenticeships such as ours can give them a foot in the door.

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“At the end of each programme, we encourage and support our apprentices to apply for posts with the trust and some have joined us as nurses and in business and administration roles.

“In our last two programmes, we had a 100% success rate in terms of our apprentices finding employment, not only in the NHS, or going into further or higher education.”

The event will run from 4pm to 6pm, in Alexander’s restaurant at South Tyneside District Hospital, in Harton Lane, South Shields.

Anyone interested in finding out more about apprenticeships with South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust, should contact Mrs Plowman on 0191 4041000, extension 2760, or email [email protected]