Graeme Cameron, Pennine Healthcare’s CEO, is Chairing a Derby County Community Trust Advisory Board, with the objective of supporting young people between the ages of 16 and 30, into starting a career within the Health and Social Care sector.
The money has been awarded through The Prince’s Trust’s SCORE (Supporting, Career, Opportunities, Recruitment & Employment) programme and is part of an ongoing workforce development drive to meet the shortfalls within our sector.
Graeme states: “As an employer in the medical device sector we are seeing increased challenges of recruiting talent across all functions. As a sector we are so purpose led, with our focus on protecting life, so you would hope that especially after the last 24 months, we can attract and develop talent – the SCORE programme is a great channel to support this.”
The programme aims to support exit routes into health and social care and will cover all roles within these settings, with no direct focus on frontline or clinical positions. The Derby County Community Trust will receive funding from The Princes’s Trust at 3 keys stages, when there is a first interaction, such as an interview, a little more when the young person is offered a job, and some more if they have sustained 3 months employment. All this income is directly funnelled back into helping the community.
Graeme concludes: “Our purpose as an Advisory Board and as Derby County Community Trust is to work with schools, colleges, universities, and local community groups to encourage young people to work in the health and social care sector and then to partner with the NHS, care organisations and private organisations such as those in the life sciences industry to build the roles and career opportunities. It really is win, win.”
If you are an employer within the NHS, a care organisation or the life sciences industry, and are interested in supporting the programme please contact [email protected]