This week, Kirstie Kohling, one of our Assistant Principal's delivered a presentation to the Leeds City's workforce board presenting the partnership work with The Health Care Academy that has supported the implementation of T Levels across Leeds. The presentation included information about the Health T Level, the delivery model, and how successfully it has been implemented across the City to date. It included progression data from our first two cohorts and also lessons learnt, and challenges going forwards.
This has been a recognised need within the industry, particularly in our region. Health and Social Care is the biggest sector in West Yorkshire with over 160,000 employed and over 350 different sector roles. There are currently over 900 vacancies for nurses, midwives, health visitors, allied health professionals and more. There are numerous reasons why there is a persistent skills gap, with a significant reason being the lack of ability to source a placement to gain valuable work experience - Higher Education could pay employers for placements, but at college level this cannot happen because of tight funding.
The Health Care Academy partnership has been established through a collaboration between Notre Dame Catholic Sixth Form College and Leeds City College. It guarantees every T Level Health student an extended industry placement, and enables hand on industry experience from the age of 16 years old. Previously, this had been a barrier to students - students under the age of 18 couldn't have this hands-on experience in a health setting and could only be offered an observer role. Our T Level students now having impressive work experience of the health and care sector, which is unrivalled in the city and all have secured jobs or are going onto university to continue their education. This cross-city collaborative model has worked so well that other hospital trusts are setting up similar ones. the latest being in Hartlepool.
If you would like to find out more bout the T Level Health course offered at Notre Dame, please click here.
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