Hull City Council

Young people in Hull move ahead in their careers thanks to T Levels Young people in Hull are progressing in their careers in health and social care thanks to T Level qualifications.

Seven students studying for a T Level in Health have been on Industry Placements with Hull City Council and Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust.

For the council, the students have been working across four adult residential day care centres in the city, catering for multiple ages and disabilities, carrying out a wide range of critical tasks including activities co-ordination, physiotherapy, language therapy and arts and craft.

Jayne Dobson, Employability at the Council, said:

“The placements were really successful with good attendance and enthusiasm. They clearly were putting what they are learning into college in to practice in the workplace.

“The work they have done will have given them knowledge and experience which will no doubt enhance their skills set for their future careers.”

The council takes on a range of work experience students and Jayne said the T Level students were above and beyond and they will be taking on five more students on Industry Placements in the coming months.

“The reason it was such a success for us is that we worked with the college and the trust to ensure the placements worked,” she said. “The students gained a wide breath of knowledge working across the two organisations and really hit the ground running!”

While the students were with the Trust they got involved in a number of activities in the hospital and community settings.

Vicki Riseham, Learner Experience and Apprenticeship Lead, Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust, said they worked with the college and internal departments to ensure there was a timetable in place and that the placements were meaningful.

She said: “We have a responsibility to support young people in the local community. The T Level students came in with fresh, new ideas and were eager to learn. We have had some really good feedback from managers, including how having the students in the departments raised staff morale.”

She said having the students working in the NHS and the care sector was beneficial because the environments and the knowledge, skills and experience gained are very similar.

“They are both patient facing, “she said. “The students were able to observe looking after patients, gained an understanding about their needs and it was clear the young people had a real passion for caring .”

Once the students achieve their T Level qualification later this year, they are moving on in their medical careers through apprenticeships and degrees in the nursing profession.

Jo Foster, Head of Health and Social Care and T Levels in Health at Wyke College, said that the experience the students have gained with Hull City Council in residential care has been relevant and invaluable and the experience has developed many transferable skills which are essential in nursing.

She said: “The placements gave them a very broad range of knowledge and skills. The students familiarised themselves with the core principals of care, looking at areas like dignity, discrimination and diversity – all essential skills – and will be able to put these into practice going forward.

“Residential care centres have multi-disciplinary medical teams in place so the students had first hand experience of seeing how a range of medical professionals operate.”

The college worked closely with the Council and the Trust in setting up the placements, ensuring that they were relevant, meaningful – which had its difficulties as the programme started during the pandemic!

The Council and the Trust worked with the students before they went on placements around health and safety and risk assessments to ensure everything that was needed was in place before they started.

Wyke College is planning to place another 15 T Level Health students in September and is starting to work with employers in the near future to identify industry placement opportunities.

Quotes from students:

Evie Holland, one of the students who is looking to go to do a nursing degree, said: “I have developed both interpersonal and practical skills throughout my T Level course. Attending a variety of different placements has enabled me to gather an idea of the career path I wish to take but has also allowed me to understand the roles of different professionals I may work with in the future. One thing I have particularly enjoyed studying the T-level is the practical elements. This included learning how to take blood pressure, use safe manual handling techniques and even completing training such as first aid. By completing these practical activities, I feel my confidence has increased which will support me further into my career.

Ruby Davies, who is going on to do a nursing degree, said: “During my T Level course, I have developed several skills and qualities that will benefit me in my next steps to becoming an adult nurse. I have completed many different block placements in different areas of the healthcare sector including baby
clinics where I picked up the skills to offer first time mums' advice on baby led weaning and cot and car safety. I also attended a wound clinic where I was able to understand the changes in wound dressing for patients with pressure wounds and what treatments were available to them. The practical side to the T-level adult nursing course has allowed me to learn in a more hands on basis in preparation for placements at university. The teachers on the T-level adult nursing course are helpful and encouraging which allowed us to build our confidence and support us to the achieve the best we can. Attending Wyke has been able to help me secure a conditional offer to study adult nursing at Leeds Beckett University.

Ellisha Willingham, who is going on to do a mental health nurse degree, said: “Throughout my T Level course, I have developed confidence from being on many placements which has allowed me to develop skills and qualities. I gained knowledge from my theory work and put that into practice in the workplace. Being able to have the opportunity to go on lots of different placements has allowed me to understand the career path I wanted to take from having placements that involved patients with mental health and other placements, which were completely different. I have been fortunate enough to work with different health professionals and understand their roles which will help me with my next steps. From this course, I have been able to communicate with patients and staff which prepared me massively for university as I have learnt how to communicate professionally. The support I received from my teachers and employers was amazing - they always were there to help and never gave up! Thanks to this, I am on course to realise my dream to study Mental Health nursing at university.”

Georgina Leafe, who is going on to do a nursing degree, said: “my T Level qualification, I have been able to prepare for university and learn the skills and qualities to become an adult nurse. I have been able to experience different roles within the healthcare sectors. I particularly enjoyed the industry placement at day centres for people with learning difficulties; we supported people to take part in daily activities such as, bowling, wheelchair dancing and crafts. I also got to experience clinical practice with registered nurses in treatment rooms where I learnt about skin conditions such as skin ulcers, treatments and recording information about the progress of healing. Even though this has been a challenging course, the teachers and employers have made sure that we had the right support in place and get the grades needed to study at university and future career paths.