Way Ahead Care is delighted to have been offered the opportunity to work with a local partnership group in Bath. The group have come together with Bath College to create a Care and Health network, called the Bath Care Academy. The other employers are Royal United Hospital, Dorothy House Hospice and Sirona care & health, GP federations and Julian House.

The Bath Care Academy aims to make sure students complete the Care Certificate as part of their training and are ready to work in the health and social care sector. It\’s also about trying to give people different opportunities. Health and Social Care students will not just go to one work placement, so they should able to make better choices, when they come into apprenticeships and employment.

Bath College have recognised a need to work more closely with local employers and to align their curriculum to meet the employer’s needs. The college has secured £40,000 from Health Education England to fund a placement co-ordinator to support the placement scheme and the students on placement. There is some funding going to help purchase equipment for their specialist training area in the college, ensuring that students are receiving sector standard training to help make them ready for the workplaces they will gain their careers in.

Health and social care students met employers signed up to the Bath Care Academy on January 12, as part of an employability day. They took part in a networking lunch and attended sessions with employers to learn about opportunities available with each company.

Way Ahead Care will offer 5 students a one day per week placement from February 2016 to run alongside their college course. During this time the students will attend training, work in the office and accompany staff on relevant calls, or operational meetings.

We will offer two apprenticeship places at the end of the college course and the students who have been attending the work placements will be invited to interview for one of those places. All the other employers in the Bath Academy will also offer some future employment or training opportunities, so the top students are able to see future career pathways with employers who are prepared to invest time and efforts into their development.

As the partnership work develops for the future we would aim to support career development opportunities for existing staff in each organisation to engage across the partnership, leading to us offering integrated services in line with service user wishes and the requirements of the Care Act 2014.