Virtual work experience

1. Enrol here

Our virtual work experience programme is aimed at everyone aged over 14 years.

It is a quick and easy way of diving into the world of health and social care careers, gaining job application and interview tips, and finding out more about current job opportunities.

The first step is to register your details for the programme. Please enrol by completing this entry form.

2. Joined Up Care Derbyshire

All the NHS and social care organisations in Derby and Derbyshire work together in a system called Joined Up Care Derbyshire. This video gives you an introduction to Joined Up Care Derbyshire.

Video below is a holding video – this will be replaced when animated video produced.

3. What is health care?

The National Health Service, or NHS, is the publicly funded medical and health care service that UK residents can access free at the point of need. The government sets aside money to fund the NHS, and most of this is paid for by UK residents paying tax.

The NHS was first set up on 5 July 1948 by the Health Minister Anuerin Bevan, so that everyone would share the burden of paying for healthcare instead of the costs coming directly from ill or injured people.

There are so many different types of jobs you could do within the NHS, many you may have never come across before. Watch this video to hear from some NHS team members.

The NHS is a complex system made up of many different organisations across the UK. It is the largest employer in the country, and the fifth largest employer in the world! Employing around 1.7 million people across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, there are more than 350 different job roles in the NHS alone.

4. What is social care?

While health care is concerned with treating health conditions, illness or injuries, social care focuses on helping people who need extra support with their everyday lives. It’s about enabling people to live as independently and comfortably as possible. Often, clients may be living at home, in care homes or in supported housing.

There are many different roles within social care – not just social workers, which tends to be the first job that springs to mind when you think about social care. You could also be a care worker, activities worker, registered nurse, occupational therapist, or in other support roles such as administration or management.

Have a look at this video to learn more about social care.

5. What types of careers are there?

Before we explain some of the types of jobs and careers available, we want to introduce you to the Careers Team at Joined Up Care Derbyshire. In this video, Susan Spray, programme lead for the Careers Team, explains about how the Careers Team supports people find roles in health and social care.

Video below is a holding video – this will be replaced when animated video produced.

Spotlight on some roles…

Allied health professionals (AHPs)

There are 15 allied health professional roles, including physiotherapist, prosthetist and therapeutic radiographer just to name a few. And they all have one thing in common: they play a vital part in treating, rehabilitating and improving the lives of patients.

AHPs help patients in ways that few other healthcare professionals can, whether that’s by helping someone learn to walk again or fixing a child’s squint.

They work alongside a multidisciplinary team of doctors and nurses, in a range of settings including hospitals and patient’s homes, as they help patients overcome obstacles, both mentally and physically.

Healthcare scientists

Healthcare scientists provide diagnostic, rehabilitative and therapeutic services in areas such as nuclear medicine, clinical physiology, biomedical engineering, laboratory sciences, imaging, bioinformatics and rehabilitation sciences. There are more than 50 different specialisms.

Healthcare Scientists are involved in 80% of all clinical decisions in the NHS. In this video, find out about how healthcare scientists are involved in blood testing.

Nursing

Nurses work as part of a multidisciplinary team, providing direct patient care. No two days will be the same as a nurse, and you could work in a variety of different settings, including hospital wards, operating theatres, schools, GP practices, care homes and people’s own homes. There are four key areas of nursing you can choose to specialise in – mental health nursing, learning disabilities nursing, adult nursing and children’s nursing.

Midwifery

The midwifery team are professionals who support expectant parents and families in pregnancy, labour, birth and the postnatal period.

Non-clinical roles/wider healthcare team

There are many diverse roles in the wider healthcare team which are vital to the smooth running of our health and care services. This includes roles such as chefs, administrators, engineers, chaplains, IT (information technology) technicians, financial accountants and managers to name just a few. Find out here in this video about working in IT services.

Pharmacy

The pharmacy workforce is the third-largest healthcare profession in the UK, with medicines being the most common treatment offered to patients. Pharmacy roles offer a great opportunity to make a difference to people’s health and wellbeing.

The pharmacy team works in all sectors of healthcare including hospitals, GP surgeries and community pharmacy (high street chemists). Pharmacy within Derby and Derbyshire offers varied and fulfilling roles whatever stage of your career you are at.

These roles include pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy support staff.

Care worker

As a care worker (or a support worker) you may work with lots of different people including adults with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, substance misuse issues, mental health conditions and older people.

Care workers support people with different aspects of their lives such as social and physical activities, mobility, meals and personal care. They might also help with booking and attending medical appointments and monitoring conditions and possibly help people with their medication.

6. Employability and application skills

There is a wide variety of different jobs within health and social care, and they all require different types of training, knowledge and skills. Whatever role you go into, there is a core set of employability skills that unite them all.

Employability skills do not just relate to the qualifications and training that someone has, but they include a whole range of transferable skills and individual values which enable them to help themselves, colleagues, patients and families.

Some examples of transferable employability skills include being organised, dedicated, reliable, empathic, compassionate and caring. All of which are important factors in most jobs within health and social care.

Hard and soft skills

Soft skills – are personal and learned by experience – including how you interact with others and contribute to a positive work environment, for example, flexibility, reliability, communication and compassion.

Hard skills – are measurable and teachable, including specific technical skills related to a job, for example, administering CPR or medicine, dressing wounds, computer software skills, or use of a specific database/computer system.

An employer will assess what skills you will bring to the workplace by reading your application/CV and holding interviews and assessments. It is a good idea to start thinking about what your skills are, and trying to build on them now, to help you put you in a good position when you are thinking about applying for jobs.
Communication skills

Communication is an extremely important transferable skill in any job role as well as in your personal life. But what do we mean by communication skills?

Essentially, communication skills are how we behave when giving and receiving information. We can often mistake communication to mean only speaking to others, however it also involves non-verbal, visual, written communication as well as listening.

In health and care, communication is vitally important. For example, this could include communicating to a patient or colleague, updating someone on a patient’s condition, or relaying results from tests and samples. It might involve providing people with varying levels of understanding, information that will make sense to them.
Listening skills
Listening can be one of the most important elements of communicating, particularly as a health care professional when working closely with patients and listening to what they have to say.

Depending on your role, you could be part of a patient’s support network, which means they are more likely to open up to you about important issues and tell you their thoughts, concerns and feelings. Through listening and really hearing what they say, this will help you to provide the best quality of care to them.

Active listening involves really hearing and understanding what people say, being able to process that information and responding appropriately. When you are seeking a new job opportunity, improving your active listening skills will help you succeed and increase your value as an employee.

Here are some active listening tips you can use to improve your interpersonal skills:

Paraphrase (summarise the main points to show you understand their meaning)

Ask open-ended questions (that can’t be answered with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and to guide them into sharing additional information)

Ask specific probing questions

Use short verbal affirmations (to show you are engaged e.g. ‘I see’, ‘yes, that makes sense’.)

Display empathy (share their feelings, show compassion e.g. ‘I’m so sorry that happened to you, here’s how I can help’)

Share similar experiences (this can help build relationships, talk about a similar experience and how you dealt with it)

Recall previously shared information (showing you remember what they have said previously)

Nod (a helpful, supportive cue to show you are listening)

Smile (can encourage them to continue, ensure they feel comfortable)

Avoid distracting movements (e.g. glancing at your watch or phone, sighing, tapping a pen etc. avoid non-verbal communication with others which can make the speaker feel uncomfortable)

Maintain eye contact (try to keep your eyes on the speaker and avoid looking at other people or objects in the room).
Teamwork
Effective teamwork in any role, in any workplace can promote an atmosphere of friendship, loyalty and unity. Good relationships can encourage employees to work harder, co-operate and be supportive of one-another.

Within a team, everyone has their own talents, strengths and weaknesses which should complement each other and work together to achieve the overall aims of the team.

Within health and care, teamwork is important for several reasons:

Offering differing perspectives – healthcare professionals work in multidisciplinary teams to ensure a holistic approach and consider the whole needs of the patient or service user.

Efficiency – We can’t do everything on our own. Teams allow workload to be shared, ensuring tasks are completed efficiently and reducing pressure on individuals.

Learning – health and care needs are constantly changing, and professionals are constantly learning. Teamwork allows insights from different viewpoints and learning from more experienced individuals.
Application forms - top tips
Read the job description/person specification thoroughly. You need to understand what the job is that you are applying for, and ensure you match your skills and experience with what the employer is asking for in the person specification.

Always tailor your application for each job you apply for – don’t just use the same wording for multiple roles as they may have different requirements. You need to show the recruiter why they should hire you for the job.

Proof-read your application before you submit it – spelling and grammar mistakes do not create a good impression.
Structuring your CV - top tips
Try to keep it to a maximum of two pages of A4

Start with your name and contact details at the top

Introduce yourself with a personal statement

Summarise your skills and achievements and career goal – this is your selling point!

List your education and training (relevant to the role) starting with the most recent first

Include any interests/hobbies that may help to sell you
Job hunting tips
Things you can do now to help boost your CV and applications:

Take on a leading role in a club

Do some volunteering

Learn a new skill

Find a part-time job – any experience is good experience, even if it’s not related to what you want to do as a career. It will show employers that you are willing to work hard to get to where you want to be.
Interview tips
Interview Tips

Preparation is key! Do a trial run before the day to ensure you know where to go, how long it takes to get there and parking arrangements. Turning up late does not create a good first impression.

Plan what to wear and get any required documents/certificates ready in advance.

Re-read the job description and think of examples from your experience which you can talk about in your answers to the questions. Try to think of different examples which demonstrate the breadth of your skills and relate to the requirements of the job e.g. communication, organisation, reliability etc.

Research the company – have a look at their website and even social media posts to give you an understanding of what they do and their core values and culture.

Try to think of one or two questions to ask the panel. This will show that you are thinking seriously about what it would be like to work there. Some examples might be:

Can you explain the day-to-day responsibilities of the job?

What challenges would someone in this role experience?

How would you describe the culture within the team/company?

7. Take the quiz

We hope you’ve enjoyed reading through our virtual work experience content and picked up some helpful insights along the way.

It’s now time to take the quiz. You will need to pass the quiz in order to be able to download the certificate of completion.

Good luck and enjoy!

[Insert quiz from Adele here]

8. Next steps

Congratulations! You’ve got to the end of the programme. Hopefully you’ll feel more informed about potential jobs and careers in health and social care. We would love you to make your career in the sector here with us in Derby and Derbyshire. If you have any questions about next steps, please email us: ddicb.joinedupcareers@nhs.net

There’s also a lot of other resources out there in case you want to find out more. We have listed a few of those resources here.