June’s Hospital Innovations 2018 in London event saw the second IHEEM roundtable held in IHEEM’s 75th Anniversary year focus on NHS apprenticeships, with a particular emphasis on ongoing work by NHSI, in conjunction with the professional institutes, to establish a national engineering apprenticeship for healthcare engineers. HEJ’s August 2018 issue (pages 32-36) reported on the first half of the discussions, while here we cover the second part.
HEJ’s August 2018 issue (pages 32-36) reported on the first half of the discussions, while here we cover the second part.
One of the key obstacles to getting more entrants into the healthcare engineering and healthcare estate management profession, participants at June’s roundtable – which was chaired by IHEEM President, Pete Sellars, and held at the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health at University College London on 6 June – concluded, was how to make the profession attractive, especially to young entrants. Such individuals now have a plethora of different career options within the engineering profession to choose from.
Phil Wade, a director at Static Systems, said: “We need to market ourselves appropriately when we attend careers events or exhibitions. Typically, if we support our HR team by sending some of our current apprentices along and they are able to talk about real-life experience, it adds some real value to the discussion, and the response is very positive. We generally recruit 2-3 apprentices annually, and have some strong links with colleges. We are considering holding more open days specifically for apprentices and school-leavers. It’s about getting the right focus.”
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