At DHU we are proud that, with us, you get a chance to develop your career and our DHU Academy is giving Health Advisors within our NHS 111 service the chance to do just that.
For the very first time, our DHU Academy is acting as a learning provider to launch our Emergency Contact Handler Apprenticeship Programme, aimed at current Health Advisors to give them essential skills to help progress their career.
Spanning all of our NHS 111 advice centres in the Midlands, these Health Advisors will develop a strong blend of communication and decision-making skills, enabling them to confidently assess situations, ask the right questions, and provide safe, effective support for you. Alongside this, they’ll build resilience, professionalism, and the ability to manage complex patient symptoms and circumstances, while continuing to balance learning with their role as a Health Advisor.
"Landmark moment"
Sharon Davies is Head of the DHU Academy and told us: “It’s a landmark moment for us as an organisation, to be able to create, provide and deliver our very own, tailor-made apprenticeship with a recognised level three qualification. It gives us the chance to look at how we run this 12 month course and develop it to offer similar opportunities to other areas of DHU such as urgent care, community care, corporate and primary care.
“It’s a 12-month apprenticeship that includes elements such as mental health first aid, Equally Yours training, the Care Certificate and a coaching qualification. Those who achieve the qualification will still be a HA but will have the skills, knowledge and experience to develop their careers in a number of different ways.
"Invest in their development..."
“It’s about providing a career pathway, giving them an insight into what they are capable of achieving and showing them that we will invest in their development if they want a career with us. We have started with 20 Health Advisors with another 20 joining in June, we can’t wait to see where this takes us and the positive impact it will have on the care we can provide our patients.”
The apprenticeship programme started at the beginning of April. Once the first apprentices have had some time to understand the programme and what they hope to achieve from it, we will feature some of their stories throughout the coming year.