We are proud to report a fantastic year of success for the Kirklees Health & Care Pathways project. The project began in November 2020 and brings together a network of key health, care and education partners across the district to be able to provide secondary and post-16 school pupils with the opportunity to consider the diverse range of careers available within the Kirklees Health and Care System.
Funded by Health Education England and delivered and managed by Ahead Partnership and C&K Careers, the project provides a collaborative “whole system” approach to sector careers outreach across the region and strengthens the future workforce by addressing skills and labour deficits within health and care
A broad coalition of interested partners across the district (including health, care and education partners) are working together to develop and roll out the programme. This includes one-to-one targeted guidance on careers in health and care, alongside a calendar of exciting events with young people that involve local staff employed by project partners who are working within the sector.
Despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, the partners have worked flexibly to engage over 1000 young people in five local schools through virtual and digital interventions that students could access at school or on their own devices at home. All the activity content developed to date has been aligned to areas of need for the partners whilst also linking to the national curriculum, whether that be drama and nursing or English and speech and language therapy.
The pandemic has had a significant impact on young people’s understanding and perception of working in health and care, with almost a quarter of 11 – 19 year olds saying that they are more likely to pursue a career in the sector since the coronavirus outbreak (Engineering UK). Our partners are determined to seize this opportunity to channel young people’s enthusiasm and interest with the information, guidance and inspiration they need to turn their ambitions into a reality.
As we move into our second year, we will be growing the programme to engage with 11 schools and introducing more innovative and engaging activities for young people. There will be large insight days exploring hidden roles in the sector and the creation of a peer ambassador scheme with the University of Huddersfield and Kirklees College. We look forward to continuing to consult with the partners involved to understand current and future trends around skills gaps and areas of focus, and turning these into meaningful and powerful activities for young people to support them as they start to make
