Thirty three T Level students from Hampshire colleges are gaining practical experience of NHS working environments thanks to T Level placements with Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust.
The students, all aged between 17 and 19, are in their second year of T Level Health and Nursing courses at City of Portsmouth College, Fareham College and HSDC Havant & South Downs College. Over the past few weeks, they have developed experience in departments across the Trust, including Paediatrics, the Emergency Department, Maternity, Older People’s Medicine, the Renal Unit and the Eye Department. The students have been working with a variety of professionals, including clinical scientists in histology and blood sciences, and with Allied Health Professionals and colleagues in Nursing and Midwifery.
Following a T Level Summit organised by the 350+ NHS Careers Programme in December 2022, PHU set about creating T Level placements for local students.
Tonia Anderson-Mills, Practice Education Matron, who led this work, says: “The students have been fantastic and will be back with us soon to continue their placements. My advice to others considering hosting students is go for it. There are so many benefits, not least helping to nurture talented people from our local communities.”
Introduced in September 2020, T Levels are a vocational qualification aimed at 16-18 year-olds. Equivalent to three A Levels, they give young people the opportunity to gain work experience via a 45-day placement, complementing the learning they do in class. The placement can happen any time in a student’s second year and can be split into different blocks of time.
Emma Gotz, T Level Strategic Lead for the 350+ NHS Careers Programme, says: “What Tonia and the team are doing in Portsmouth is absolutely brilliant and exactly what we would like to see adopted at scale across the NHS in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. We’re continuing to work with colleges and our NHS colleagues to facilitate the uptake of T Level placements across the region.”
Do you have a question about T Level placements? Whether you are part of an NHS Trust that could host students, or from a local college looking to place T Level students, you can speak with a member of our 350+ NHS Careers T Level team. Just complete the contact form under the ‘Contact’ tab to get started.
