We work with a range of educational providers to offer opportunities for our staff to learn and develop at all stages of their careers at the Trust.
These include opportunities for those early in their careers on university placements, apprenticeships, training and virtual work experience programmes.
Personal development is fundamental to our investment in our staff, with training and opportunities to progress at all stages of their career across the organisation. All staff are encouraged to develop their knowledge and skills to deliver the high standard of care and service to meet the needs of our communities.
As soon as you join the Trust, we want you to have the support you need, including:
- Welcoming and helping you to understand the organisation and how it works
- A general induction (including a welcome session from the Chief Executive) as well as sessions specific to your role
- You’ll have a buddy to help you settle in during your first 3 months at the Trust
- Mentoring and supervision
- Access to libraries and research facilities for further education
- Opportunities to have your say including regular listening events and leadership forums
- A number of staff networks, including LGBTQ+, disability and BAME.
There are a number of different routes into many careers at West London NHS Trust. Take a look at our education, training, and development opportunities available below:
Apprenticeships provide routes into different careers at the Trust. You can earn a salary while gaining work experience and working for nationally recognised qualifications.
We offer the following apprenticeships:
- Business administration and human resources
- The registered nursing degree and the trainee nurse associate apprenticeship
- Occupational therapy and physiotherapy
- Clinical associate psychology
- Estates and facilities services
- Health and social care
- IT
- Team leading and management.
These are available at the following levels:
- Intermediate level
Apprentices follow work-based learning towards level 2 - equivalent to 5 GCSEs at grades A*. These provide the skills you need for your chosen career and enable you to progress to an advanced level apprenticeship. - Advanced level
Apprentices follow work-based learning towards level 3 - equivalent to 2 A-levels. To start this level of apprenticeship, you should ideally have five GCSEs (grade C or above) or have completed an intermediate level apprenticeship. - Higher level
Apprentices follow work-based learning towards levels 4, 5,6 and 7 - equivalent to a foundation degree and above. To start this level of apprenticeship, you should ideally have 2 A-levels or have completed an advanced level apprenticeship. - Degree level
Apprentices follow work-based learning towards levels 6 and 7 - equivalent to a full bachelor’s or master’s degree.
Find out more about West London NHS Trust apprenticeships here.
Meet Adam - one of our award-winning apprentices.
More information
To find out more about apprenticeships at West London NHS Trust, contact:
Carol Plows, Vocational Development and Apprenticeship Manager
Email: carol.plows@westlondon.nhs.uk
You can also find more information on the government’s apprenticeship website.
We have worked on creating interactive and visible career development pathway documents for various pathways to help you see what development is required to move up in your career:
We offer courses and programmes to develop clinical staff.
Courses include in-house cognitive behavioural therapy training and a preceptorship scheme for newly qualified nurses and occupational therapists.
We provide supervision for all our clinical staff, supported by a range of relevant training courses.
Outside of mandatory training, we also have a platform for staff to access bitesize eLearning courses, assessments, videos and articles. These resources enable staff to take charge of their own career development, understand their career aspirations, motivations, preferences, and values. This enables staff to develop their management, teamwork, presentation, communication, resilience, Information Technology (IT), and other career skills at any time.
The role of a leader is arguably one of the most important roles in any organisation. Achieving high levels of commitment and motivation from front line staff as well as meeting the needs of your service users, their carers and others at the same time is key if the Trust is to achieve success.
As a Trust, we score the highest in our comparator group for our Immediate Leaders in our staff survey and have done over several years.
We pride ourselves on providing a range on Leadership Development to our managers at all levels through their career with us ranging from apprenticeships in management through to senior leader MBA Leadership programmes.
We also support manager through our ‘just in time training’ available through multiple resources on the go including a mobile app, eLearning, and articles on a range of topics:
- Lead by Example Programme
- Lead with Compassion Programme
- Personal Development Review (Appraisals) and Supervision Training
- Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Leadership Programme
- Staff Nurse to Clinical Team Leader
- Management Development Programme
- 360 Degree Feedback
- Edward Jenner Programme
- Presentation Masterclass
- Coaching
- 2 Hours 2 Learn Workshops.
Roles in medical education and training present exciting opportunities for your development as a Consultant or Senior Staff Associate Specialist Grade (SASG) doctor through your career with us at the Trust.
The Trust is a major provider of postgraduate medical education through our relationship with Health Education England and it’s various training programmes. We provide over 110 GMC approved training placements across the organisation that span Foundation, GPVTS, Core and Higher Specialist Training in Psychiatry.
With the oversight and quality assurance of the Director of Medical Education and Postgraduate Department, our Medical Education Faculty comprises a network of programme managers, lead educational roles, local tutors, and nearly ninety General Medical Council (GMC) approved consultant trainers.
The Trust also makes a significant contribution to undergraduate medical education and is also an educational institution for both undergraduate and postgraduate trainees of multiple clinical disciples through its relationships with Imperial College, Bucks New University and The University of West London.
We also publish a weekly Academic Programme through our Training Matters newsletter which is open to all to attend; consultants, associate specialists, doctors in training, psychologists, pharmacists, and nursing staff.
The Nursing Development Team (NDT) is committed to supporting, championing, developing, and growing the nursing workforce; taking an active role in raising the profile and strengthening the voice of nursing within and beyond West London NHS Trust.
The NDT’s work is underpinned by collaborative, evidence-based practice development and innovation that promotes effective use of information and digital technologies as well as fosters strong professional identity and compassionate leadership within the context of multi-professional working in order to ensure the highest standards of patient care and experience and foster a healthy, happy nursing workforce.
The NDT lead on several key areas of work including:
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Pre-registration nursing
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Preceptorship
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International Recruitment
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Our Capital Nurse Rotation Programme
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Leading on the development of Advanced Clinical Practice
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West London NHS Trust’s Annual Nursing Conference.
In addition to the core work listed above, the NDT also respond to local Trust requirements including:
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Teaching on a variety of subjects
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Writing and reviewing policies related to nursing
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Providing support and advice for individuals as / when required on a number of issues
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Providing support and mentorship for those with changing or expanding roles
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Supporting the development and commissioning of training for post-registration nurses
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Nursing recruitment and retention initiatives.
We’ve developed partnerships with universities to provide the professional development for clinical staff, including nurses and allied health profeessionals.
We work in particular with:
Personal Development Reviews (also known as Appraisals) are mandatory for all staff. These exist to improve the Trust’s efficiency by ensuring that individuals perform to the best of their ability, development their potential, opportunities for feedback and work towards agreed objectives.
To support managers, we also offer engaging workshops and support resources to allow to have effective and productive conversations.
Many Trusts take an exclusive approach to talent management, identifying only those staff in Bands 8C and above. We have designed our Talent Pool. Aligned with our appraisal system, the talen pool aims to give those with great potential and ambition the opportunity to access a range of development opportunities, tailored to their own career aspirations. They are also offered opportunities to access coaching and mentoring.
We recognise the importance of any scheme we put in place needing to be fair and transparent, and we believe our talent process is just that. Self-nomination ensures that everyone can apply and invite our medical staff and those who are on maternity and adoption leave to apply too.
We are committed to ensuring our staff have a range of learning opportunities to meet statutory and mandatory requirements, which are provided through internal and external training, distance learning and apprenticeships. To enable staff to develop in their careers we also offer courses in literacy and numeracy through a range of providers.
At West London NHS Trust we offer work-based learning programmes in nursing, medicine (psychiatry), allied health professions (AHP), and psychology. Our aim is to give a helping hand to those within our local community who want to learn more about the NHS.
Work experience placements are an opportunity for the Trust to showcase our fantastic work and inspire young people in years 10-13 to consider a career in the NHS, and in particular, at West London NHS Trust.