Birmingham Women and Children’s working to create opportunities for care experienced young people
Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust (BWC) is a proud signatory and supporter of the NHS Universal Family Programme (Care Leaver Covenant) and recently held a special Employability event for young people.
The session, which was part of the wider scheme to ensure access to employment, education and training opportunities within the NHS and our communities for care leavers, was held at the Children’s Hospital on 20 May.
Care experienced young people were welcomed to meet NHS professionals to learn more about the various and wide-ranging careers that are available, including clinical, admin, estates, operational and more.
Lawrence Kelly, People Partnerships and programmes Manager, who leads the Universal Family programme on behalf of the ICB said: “ The event is a positive opportunity for our local care experienced community to find out about the amazing work our staff do in the trust and the wider NHS, with a deep insight on how to explore training and employment options.
Lawrence added, “2000 young people leave the care system each year in Birmingham and we are a proud signatory of the care leavers covenant and committed to sharing our responsibilities as social parents in the individual journeys we support.”
They heard from members of the Trust team about how they got into their roles and how they could too, with information on opportunities available, including apprenticeships, with more than 350 paths on offer.
The engaging event concluded with an educational CPR session from one of BWC’s Resuscitation Practitioners.
Nav Sharma, Aspire Lead, and Femi Kuforiji, Widening Participation Project Manager, at our Trust work with young people as part of the Universal Family programme.
They support with interview preparation, personal statements and CVs to help take the next step.
Femi said: “This is a unique programme offering access to professional development and support into a career for vulnerable young people, especially care leavers.
“It tackles unemployment, social deprivation, and promotes regeneration as being important within the community.”
Nav and Femi work with outreach agencies to connect with young people in the community like Taaliyah, an aspiring nurse who came along to the event.
She said: “The session was really good. It gave me the push to really know what I want to do next within my career. I really enjoyed hearing about how I can help others.
“It is also amazing to hear other people’s career stories and how everyone started from somewhere and you can work your way up.”