Transcript
So it’s now August and the Graduate Scheme team is busy planning our schedule for visits to Universities and NHS organisations during the autumn, in order to give people more information about the Graduate Management Training Scheme. So we will be visiting University Careers Fairs, we’ll also be visiting NHS organisations and doing presentations, so if you have the chance please look at our events planner and come and see us at an event near you and you’ll get the chance to meet Graduate Scheme staff and also current trainees on the scheme who will be able to tell you what it is really like being a Graduate trainee in the NHS, so do check the events planner and do come and see us very soon.
What impact does the Graduate Scheme have on the NHS?
So, the first thing I am going to talk about is the impact of the Graduate Management Training Scheme on the NHS and what impact does it actually have.
It’s a really interesting point because the Graduate Management Training Scheme has been in existence in the NHS for over 40 years and some people would say 50 years, so it has been around and got great value and people see it as an integral part of delivering better patient care.
What future career progression can I expect by joining the Scheme?
In terms of career progression, the Graduate Management Training Scheme is a great springboard to all opportunities across the whole of England within the NHS. Many of our trainees after they are with us for their 2, 2 and a half years go onto excellent managerial roles, and then work there way up the system top become Board level Directors in Finance, HR, General Management, Informatics or Chief Executives, so the options are absolutely endless.
Many of our alumni have become Board level Directors in 10 years, so in terms of the career progression it can be very very quick indeed, and one of our ex-alumni, Sir David Nicholson, is also Chief Executive of the NHS currently, so the options are endless.
What locations within England could I be based?
So we are often asked by prospective applicants, where will I be based if I get a place on the Graduate Management Training Scheme?
Well the short answer is you could be placed anywhere across the whole of England, however, England is divided into 10 regions and in the NHS these are called Strategic Health Authorities. We do ask you for your preferences in terms of which region you would like to train in and will obviously take this into consideration in terms of placing you, however, successful applicants do need to be flexible and mobile so that they can have work placements in different NHS organisations. So, it is key that people know that they will need to travel around NHS organisations in a particular part of the country.
How long are the Assessment Centres and what can I expect?
Thinking more about your possible time on the Graduate Management Training Scheme, just to take you through the process, what would happen is we advertise for the Scheme as you know in the Summer and then people apply, our closing date is usually around December, people then go who are shortlisted go through a assessment process, which usually completes in the following March, people are offered posts then with us in the March, they typically then start with us in the September of the same year, so that is our process in terms of assessment processes.
The assessment usually takes the place of an online application, a number of online tests, and then if people get through that stage it is an interview and then if people then get through that stage it’s a 24 hour leadership challenge which we are currently holding in Warwick, Warwick University, and people arrive with us midday one day and go through a number of assessment exercises and then leave us the following day.
So it is a very rigorous assessment process, one that has been designed with
Occupational Psychologists and one that has been designed with people who specialise in terms of assessment processes and ensuring that our assessment processes are fair in terms of diversity and inclusion, so it is extremely rigorous, and each year from huge numbers that apply originally, we go through this process and end up usually offering between 200 and 220 jobs to come and join our service.
Where would I be placed?
So, if you are lucky enough to be one of the 220 who we then offer a post to, you would start with us in the September, and we would ask you before you started with us to give us your three preferences in terms of which parts of the country you would prefer to train in, and these are large areas of the country and we try and accommodate peoples preferences however, I am always asked where would I be placed and in reality people could be placed in one part of the country or another part of the country depending on their options and depending on how many organisations actually want and can train a trainee for us during that year.
So, we are a national health service and we do expect our trainees to be mobile if possible but we do take special circumstances into consideration if we can as well.
So, in terms of your time on the scheme, you will be placed in a region of the NHS known as a Strategic Health Authority which covers a very large patch and the region that I live in is Yorkshire and Humber, so if you were to come to Yorkshire and Humber you could be placed anywhere between Hull in the East and then over to the West of West Yorkshire down to South Yorkshire and up into North Yorkshire so it is a very large patch, so that includes all the big towns such as Hull, Leeds, Bradford, as well as Huddlesfield, Scunthorpe, York, Harrogate so the options are endless and of course all of the places in between where we have Hospitals or Primary Care Trusts, or Mental Health Trusts or the Ambulance Service, so again people could be located anywhere, and the beauty of being located anywhere is that we are interested in you actually experiencing a fantastic work experience and work placement as apposed to being in the biggest town.