Great Reasons to do business in the North East

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Nadine Hudspeth, Director of Marketing at Gateshead College kicks off our February Great Reason to do business in the NE with a blog post on our leading education sector, and our collaborative work with the business community.

Access to talent is right up there with the top reasons to choose somewhere to set up or grow a business.

Those of us who live here know that North East people have a reputation for resilience, hard graft, friendliness and an ability to adapt to shifts in the regional economy that mean job opportunities today are likely to be very different tomorrow – this has never been truer as we emerge from the pandemic.

Equally the North East is a great place to live and this should help us attract talent but even that isn’t essential now that we have discovered the possibilities remote working offers; you can study and work nationally and internationally from your dining room if that is what you choose. This change in work and study patterns, and the speed with which we’ve embraced them, bring really positive opportunities for the future.

We can be rightly proud of the impressive network of education and skills providers in the region which support the development of the pipeline of talent every business relies upon offering a vast range of qualifications and specialisms. Our universities have global reputations for ground breaking research and play a key role in enabling innovation and entrepreneurship. They’re also trailblazers for higher skills programmes in many areas including health sciences, nursing and digital. Equally their track record in widening participation has never been more crucial putting us in a prime position to make sure that everyone has opportunities to pursue their aspirations for a great career.

My heart is in further education as you’d expect, and the launch of the FE Skills and Jobs White Paper last week rightly shines a light on the essential role of colleges and value of technical education. The report’s recommendations put employers firmly in the driving seat in shaping regional skills plans with Chambers of Commerce playing a pivotal role.

Developing curriculum to meet actual skills needs and preparing people for jobs has long been at the core of our strategy at Gateshead College where ‘education with employment edge’ has been our ethos for many years. Talent in the workplace is not just about the qualification, and our focus on wider personal skills development and character is equally as crucial with employers needing employees with a range of qualities and skills.

There’s countless examples of great collaborations between colleges and industry across our region, where working together to customise really high quality provision that provides pathways into jobs is the norm. The facilities we have access too are also first class with specialist centres for digital and tech, rail, marine, engineering, healthcare and more. And, given our Chamber’s strong relationship with providers and members, we are well placed to be amongst the first to pilot these recommendations and as a result see even greater collaboration which will not only help us fill skills gaps but spot opportunities that will ensure North East businesses prosper as we emerge from Covid-19.

The pandemic’s impact on some of our key sectors and unemployment for local people also gives us an opportunity to reinvent and retrain. Let’s all throw our weight behind the Chamber’s campaign to drive a better funding deal for adults and help influence the government’s promise of a Lifetime Skills Guarantee to make sure it is something which will enable all adults to secure a job and enable businesses to benefit from access to this great pool of talent.

And in the North East we recognise the importance of raising the aspirations of our young people. Making sure that they have access to really high quality and inspirational careers advice and guidance, to good role models, mentors and opportunities, and an awareness of what is possible if they work hard. I know we will continue to work together to make sure they don’t get left behind and programmes such as North East Ambition, Work Inspiration Gateshead and NE1 Can, amongst many others, alongside the work our business community does to engage young people, all have the potential to make a positive difference making sure the North East is the very best place to grow, attract and retain talent and a great place to do business.

Chamber response to Government white paper on skills for jobs

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Jonathan Walker, director of policy, North East England Chamber of Commerce said:

“We have built strong working relationships with colleges and training providers across the region and are pleased the importance of these relationships is recognised in the white paper. There is now the opportunity to strengthen these links and we look forward to exploring how we can do this for the benefit of our employers, workforce and communities.”

Adult Education: Sophie Graham

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Stepping-up to the frontline

Just 18 months ago, mum-of-two Sophie Graham quit her retail job of nine-years to realise a lifelong dream of becoming a nurse. She secured an assistant role at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital supporting the physio team and soon afterwards started an Access to HE Health course at Gateshead College. Now she’s been redeployed to the frontline where she’s working in critical care on the coronavirus wards. Sophie is just one example of the many students and trainees across the country who have stepped-up to care for people, here she shares her experience.

I know I’m not unique when I say that I can’t wait for life to be a little more normal. But while coronavirus is here, I’ve been given a very special opportunity to work on the frontline. Yes, at first it was daunting and I was scared; less than two years ago I was helping women into dresses at occasionwear store, Coast and now I’m helping to save lives in the middle of a global pandemic.

There’s only one way I’d describe my time working in critical care and that is a huge privilege. I’m so grateful that my job is to help people and care for them in their time of need, it’s definitely where I’m meant to be. And, as far as nursing training goes, this is possibly the best introduction anyone could have, it’s a massive learning experience. I’m taking away so much from the amazing nurses on Ward 6 and critical care at the QE; they are all superheroes and I’m constantly in awe.

I always knew deep down that I wanted to work in nursing. My mum Lesley was a nurse for more than 35-years until she retired in in 2012 and she inspired me so much. But changing career at this stage of my life was massive for me. I’m 37 now and I didn’t know where to start or how I would get onto a nursing degree. In 2018, I went to a jobs fair at the QE, where Mum had worked as a women’s health nurse and, luckily, I had enough experience to apply to become a rehab assistant in the physio department. I was successful and had been doing that job full-time for just over a year before being redeployed in March to the covid wards.

While working at the QE, I also got in touch with Northumbria University to find out how I could get onto their nursing degree, and that’s how I found out about the Access to Higher Education Health Diploma at Gateshead College. It’s a one-year programme that I started in September 2019 and it prepares you for uni. The course is really complex and studying while working full-time plus bringing up a young family has been intense to say the least! My teacher, Emma, has been amazing throughout and when the lockdown started, she switched to online teaching and support, helping us to finish our studies remotely. I have absolutely loved going to college and I’ve made some friends for life – many of us keep in touch and are sharing our experiences of working on the frontline right now.

What none of us could have foreseen was just how soon we’d be putting the knowledge and everything we’d learned at college into practice. The ‘humans against disease’ module specifically has really helped me to understand the decisions being made and treatments for coronavirus patients. At work I’m learning so much too, infection control is obviously really important and being a critical care nursing assistant, I’ve had some of the best training and experience using PPE.

I’m also experiencing how infection control impacts working practices. We’ve no circulated air or air conditioning on the wards and along with full PPE kit – scrubs, overalls, two pairs of gloves, hair net, visor and mask- our 13.5-hour shifts are hot and tiring. We take a personal break every three hours and that’s our opportunity to eat, drink and use the bathroom. It takes 15 minutes to both put on and take off all of the protective wear, so those breaks need to be used carefully as you’re then back in the controlled atmosphere on the ward.

The long shifts are nothing new for me, I work the same three-days as I did as a rehab assistant before being redeployed. Only now, rather than supporting patients as they are discharged, I’m helping to care for critically ill patients who have coronavirus. I’m responsible for taking patient blood pressure and temperature, repositioning our intubated patients and supporting nurses with anything they need, such as keeping their equipment stocked up.

The experience I’m getting along with my learning on the Access course, will give me a great advantage when I start the Nursing Science degree at Northumbria this September. It’s taken a lot of hard work to get where I am now, and I know there’s still more to come, but being on the frontline has made me more certain than ever that nursing is where I belong. I feel very lucky to have this opportunity to follow in my mum’s footsteps and fulfil a lifelong ambition to care for others.

For anyone considering a change of career, I would completely recommend the course I did at Gateshead College. While returning to education was a big step for me, I was made to feel very at ease. Despite there being a mix of people of different ages, backgrounds and circumstances, we all had one thing in common – we want to help people. We got on so well, I enjoyed every single minute. Above all else, the Access to HE qualification is my key to starting Uni and I’m a step closer to becoming a qualified nurse.