Health and social care students graduate at Telford College

Students have taken their first steps on the road to a career in the health and social care sector, thanks to a pre-employment course at Telford College.

The free course is run as part of the Marches Education Partnership – a collaboration of education and training organisations, working on an ambitious new skills-boosting project to provide valuable support for the health and social care sector.

Sarah Davies, director of health and science at Telford College, said:

“The students completed 12 introductory modules on various topics such as infection control, first aid, GDPR, dementia and communication.

“The course ran over two weeks in Telford College’s health skills hub and employers were invited into college on the last day to speak to students about a range of vacancies across the sector.

“It has given the students an opportunity to apply for jobs in the sector or the opportunity to progress onto further student at the college.”

She added: “The students thoroughly enjoyed the course, and most have signed up to the level two health and social care course which starts this month.”

The aim of the course is to get more people into the care sector, either by moving straight into employment, or onto level two health and social care courses.

The next pre-employment course is running in January. Full details about this, and other Marches Education Partnership programmes, can be found at marches-education.co.uk.

The Marches Education Partnership includes Telford College, Herefordshire, Ludlow and North Shropshire College, Shrewsbury Colleges Group, and SBC Training.

The partners are committed to working together on a series of initiatives over the next 18 months to support the recruitment and retention of NHS and social care staff, boosting skills and encouraging newcomers into the sector.