University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT) is delighted to have won the T-Level Employer of the Year in the prestigious National Apprenticeship and Skills Awards 2024.
The ceremony to announce the regional winners was held on 3 October and UHMBT will now progress to represent the region in the national final on 27 November 2024.
T-Levels are two-year qualifications for 16 to 19-year-olds designed in collaboration with employers across all industries in England. Each T-Level is equivalent to three A Levels, with the aim to support the young person to develop their skills, knowledge and to thrive in the workplace.
Iain Hook, Careers Lead for UHMBT, said: “I am thoroughly delighted that the last three years of commitment to delivering T-Levels has culminated in receiving this award.
“Our T-Level provision is a national exemplar, and this recognition is very welcome. Our aim is to make a difference to young people and give them access to the huge variety of career opportunities in the NHS. Some of our T-Level students have ended up working for our Trust or have embarked on an Apprenticeship, helping with our goal of becoming an Employer of Choice in the area.
“The cooperation with dozens of Trust colleagues, our three partner colleges and of course the hundreds of students we have supported, makes this award a truly collaborative achievement.”
The National Apprenticeship and Skills Awards celebrates its 21st anniversary in 2024 and for the very first time includes awards to recognise T-Level students and employers from all industries.
The awards are designed to reward the achievements of exceptional apprentices and T-Level students, skills champions, and apprenticeship and T-Level employers.
Each regional ceremony recognises apprentices, T-Level students who have gone above and beyond to make a different while undertaking their apprenticeship or T-Level, exceptionally dedicated apprenticeship employers, T-Level employers and individuals who champion skills and all their benefits.
Apprenticeship and T-Level employers, apprentices and T-Level students and skills champions from all industries entered the awards – with more than 1,300 entries received nationally from sectors including the public sector, health, IT, science and digital. These finalists are apprenticeship and T-Level exemplars, highlighting best practice across recruitment excellence, high quality training practices, diversity and career progression.
Teams from across the Trust attended a career's fair at Lancaster and Morecambe College to interest almost 650 local students in future careers in health.
As well as Theatres, Pharmacy, Physiotherapy, and Radiology, non clinical teams from teams such as Finance and Administration attended the event and spoke to youngsters from across the Lancaster and Morecambe area. They were joined by teams from social care providers, the North West Ambulance Service and Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust.
As well as students from the college, students from Our Lady's Catholic College, Morecambe Bay Academy, Lancaster Royal Grammar School, Lancaster Girls Grammar School, Bay Leadership Academy, Garstang High, and Ripley High School attended the day.
The aim was to demonstrate the wide variety of careers that are available in health and social care, the routes into those careers and what the roles will entail.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
Pictured are Tom Russell, North West Chair of the Apprenticeship Ambassador Network, Jennifer Burden, Representative of The Gatsby Foundation which sponsored the award, Iain Hook, Careers Lead for UHMBT, and Chanise Evans, one of our very own Apprenticeship beneficiaries who now works as a presenter, journalist and Senior Advisor for BBC.