Career Ambassadors

Description 

Were you a Cadet yourself? Or are you someone that just feels passionate about your job and inspiring the workforce of the future? We’re looking for enthusiastic individuals keen to share their career journey, job role and experience to inspire our current NCA Cadets. 

Requirements 

It’s up to you how you want to engage with the Cadets – group sessions, workshops, virtual talks and Q&A sessions – our Career Ambassador Team will support you in whatever you choose. Cadet Ambassadors of all levels are needed. No minimum commitment. 

Description

Are you someone who is friendly and approachable and enjoys helping others? Cadet Champions of all levels are needed from Health Care Assistants to Lead Nurses. You will be supporting staff in your team during the Cadet placement with any queries or concerns as well as being a friendly face and point of contact and support for the Cadet. 

Requirement

• Agreement from Ward Manager / Team Leader and Practice Education Lead for the department to host a Cadet. 
• Able to offer ad hoc support to Cadets and staff across either adult nursing, allied health professionals or healthcare science 

Description

Do you currently work in the field of Adult Nursing, Allied Health Professions or Healthcare Science? If so, we want to hear from you! Whether you are community or hospital based there is an opportunity for you to host a Cadet as they start their journey within the NHS. Starting placement ready trained with basic skills – Cadets will be a real asset to the team right from day 1. They will be able to contribute to the day to day running of your service and provide bands 2+ with opportunities to develop their supervisory skills. This is your chance to inspire and motivate our workforce of tomorrow and perhaps even secure your next employee

Requirement

• Agreement from Ward Manager / Team Leader and Practice Education Lead. 
• Able to offer minimum of 1 Cadet x 10 week placement (4 days per week Mon-Fri, 7.5 hours per day between 7am-5.30pm) across either adult nursing, allied health professionals or healthcare science 

Description

Do you feel strongly about ensuring young people get the opportunities they deserve? Do you enjoy building relationships with others within and outside of your team? Cadet Cheerleaders are needed to promote the Cadet Programme across the NCA in order to increase the awareness of how valuable Cadets are to our future workforce and encourage uptake of placement hosts. 

Requirement

It’s really up to you how you engage with your fellow colleagues – emails, team meetings, presentations, event stands, flyers. The Cadet Team will provide you with all the information you need about the Cadet programme and statistics around onward destinations of Cadets. No minimum commitment. 

Description

Are you someone that enjoys helping others to learn? Do you want to share your knowledge, experience and skills in helping teach and educate the workforce of the future? Cadet Trainers are needed to help build up our bank of educational resources and be involved in virtual and face to face training sessions to keep Cadets and their Clinical Educators up-to-date with current practice and developments across adult nursing, allied health professions and healthcare science within the NCA. 

Requirement

Trainers are needed of all levels from Health Care Assistants to Consultants with knowledge of current practices across Adult Nursing Teams, Allied Health Professions and Healthcare Science. No minimum requirement. 

If you are interested in supporting the Cadet programme in any way please contact Cadets@nca.nhs.uk

We are always looking for teams across the NCA to open their doors and offer a term long placement to one of our interns. By doing this you will make a huge difference to the lives of our interns and you will get a lot out of it by seeing them gain confidence and independence in the job role. The intern receives training and support from a job coach until they are confident and able to do the job. 

If you are interested in supporting the Internship programme, please contact the Supported Internship Programme Lead for your Care Organisation: 

• Salford Care Organisation – David Hills Senior Employment Officer, Pure Innovations,  David.Hills@pureinnovations.co.uk  

• Bury Care Organisation - Natalie Irvine, Senior Employment Officer, Pure Innovations,   Natalie.Irvine@pureinnovations.co.uk  

• Oldham Care Organisation – Hayley Whitehead Job Coach, hwhitehead@newbridgegroup.org or Daniel Wood Executive Director dwood@newbridgegroup.org

• Rochdale Care Organisation –  Marie English,  Marie.English@Redwood-school.com  

You must be willing to support and encourage a young person (16-25 years old) in your team for 6 months at 25 hours per week. And you must have £2k in your budget to bring their salary in line with the AFC salary band.  

Priority will be given to departments with a track record of supporting pre-employment learners e.g. The Prince’s Trust Programme, Supported Internships, or the PAT pre-employment programme. 

Generic band 2 job descriptions (clinical and non-clinical) have been prepared to support managers through the recruitment process.   

If you are interested in supporting a local young person into employment via the Kickstart programme and you have a new entry level job in mind that is suitable, please contact Sandra.Jones@nca.nhs.uk to find out more information.   

“In Pathology we have recently created an administration job in our point of care department in order to accommodate a kickstarter. We only had 2 applicants to interview but they both impressed the panel so much, in different ways, that we found a job within our Biochemistry Department so that we could offer them both a job. We have not been disappointed in the decision. 

Both were really engaged during the recruitment process and, although obviously nervous at working in what is a really alien environment for most people, have quickly settled in and shown enthusiasm and a willingness to learn and work hard. Both exuded the vibe of ‘I just want to be in work’. Hopefully their ‘can do’ attitude and enthusiasm will inspire other staff to see our workplace through different eyes and appreciate what we often take for granted. 

We don’t know yet what the next few months will hold and if there will be a position for them at the end of their 6-month jobs but we would be keen to keep them on if there were. In the meantime we are working with them to ensure that they can find a job within the NCA, if not with Pathology, so that Salford Royal can benefit from their training and they can stay in an environment that they are both thriving in. The only negative has been that we struggle to keep up some days as they get through their set work at such a pace.

If we can have another kickstart placement would we? An emphatic yes! Pathology is always looking for new talent pipelines and we have been really impressed by the calibre of our Kickstart applicants. Six months is a really long time to trial a potential new staff member so we know their strengths and weaknesses before they come on board with us on a permanent basis.” 

Julie Miller  Training Facilitator for Pathology at Wigan and Salford