19 January 2022

Skills Training UK shortlisted for ‘Best Educational Programme for the NHS’ at HSJ Partnership Awards 2022

Health Service Journal (HSJ) has announced Skills Training UK as a finalist in the category for ‘Best Educational Programme for the NHS’ in its 2022 showcase of the collaborations and partnerships driving NHS transformation and improving patient outcomes.

The shortlisting for the HSJ Partnership Awards follows our win for Health and Science Apprenticeship Provider of the Year at the FE Week and AELP AAC Apprenticeship Awards 2021.

In 2019 some £200 million (79%) of NHS Trust Apprenticeship Levy remained unused, and Skills Training UK designed Apprenticeships for the NHS, a bespoke approach to empower Trusts and their employees to embrace the value of Apprenticeships in achieving organisational goals as well as individual career progression.

Since then, over 48 NHS Trusts and more than 500 NHS employees have benefitted from the tailored and bespoke programmes, developing the skills and knowledge of both clinical and non-clinical staff in areas including continuous quality improvement, leadership and management, and customer service.

Rachael Bish, Apprenticeship and Widening Access Facilitator, Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust, says: “Skills Training UK spent time understanding our values and really understanding our training priorities. They got right under the skin of the Trust so they could make the training relevant and bespoke.” 

A virtual learning environment, webinars for entire courses delivered by subject matter experts and excellent remote 1-2-1 support have helped to remove barriers and enabled training to continue during Covid-19.

Claire Felkin, Training and Development Manager, Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, says: “The virtual training worked particularly well during the disruption from Covid – everyone has completed the remote workshops to be able to continue onto the next topics in their training.” Claire Felkin, Training & Development Manager, Royal Orthopaedic Hospital

Martin Dunford OBE, Chief Executive of Skills Training UK said, “After an unprecedented effort from the NHS since the pandemic, we are thrilled to have been shortlisted for the HSJ Partnership Awards 2022 in recognition of our bespoke offering of Apprenticeships for the NHS.

It has been, and continues to be, an incredibly challenging period for everyone who works in the NHS, and we’d like to give recognition and thanks to our NHS Trust Apprenticeship partners for their dedication to supporting the continuation of learning wherever possible for Apprentices during the pandemic. We look forward to continuing to work with NHS Trusts across the country to increase staff motivation and progression, as well as supporting long-term workforce objectives.”

In 2020, Skills Training UK became an NHS Partner of Choice nationally for Customer Service Level 2 and new Clinical Coder Level 3, which we designed and launched in February 2020 and are the only provider nationally.

We’re also a Partner of Choice in London for Business Administration Level 3 and Associate Project Manager Level 4.  As a Partner of Choice for these standards it makes it easier for NHS Trusts to invest in these Apprenticeships on a larger scale, without the need for procurement exercises.

As the new year is upon us, we look forward to further developing our partnerships with new and existing NHS Trusts, while growing our wide range of Apprenticeship programmes on offer, including the recent Coaching Professional Level 5 standard.

For further information about our bespoke approach for NHS Trusts see here. We look forward to celebrating amongst other finalists at the awards ceremony, which takes place in London on 24 March 2022.